Use cases
- How often do you perform 'SELECT *' or 'COUNT()' on a table? Now it is much faster then ever, both queries are executed in the same time all you need to do is enter table name, you also don't need to switch to sql server management studio, it is possible directly from Visual Studio.
- Are you tired of writting long queries with multiple joins? You can click on foreign key icon and join will be performed for you, it can not be easier!
- Your entity framework class is mapped to different table name? Nothing easier you can search by class or table name.
- Your database is missing foreign keys? Just run missing key analyzer and create them.
- Do you want to know something more about your database? You can easily check which table is the biggest, has the most columns, indexes, foreign keys etc. All of this gives you amazing insight into your database structure
- If you are debugging and you need to check data stored for variable? You don't need to copy Id value to SSMS, you can get select statement with where condition on primary key column with one click.
- Your tables contain columns like 'StatusId' which are mapped to enums in entity framework? Thanks to entity framework class mappers you will see also enum value in your results, no more wondering what this number means.
- If You need to test performance of your app or databse? Just download Data Generator and create millions of records in minutes!
- If in code there is a magic number from table like 'Statuses' and you are not sure what it means? Just type ctrl+D+S on this type and you will get all values from this table without leaving visual studio.
- You can check definition of database view or stored proccedure directly from code! Without switching to SSMS
What's your role?
- Senior back-end developer or junior tester - It doesn't matter, it makes data querying always much easier and faster.
- Team Lead or Project Manager - Help your team be more productive by providing them with those tools.
- Developer - You don't have to switch to SSMS for every query. It is most of the time much faster to do this directly from Visual Studio.
- Tester - You don't need to know SQL commands for inserting data or performing queries, you can easily create lots of data with Data Generator to start performance testing or use those tools to easily query databse.
- New in project - Using missing indexes information you can shine :) in your new job.
- Are you responsible for systems integrations and you don't know your client database schema? Use Database Insights to get better picture of new database.
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If you don't feel comfortable when working with SQL? Because:
- You have just started your journey with programming
- You prefer front-end development
- You have worked with different database
Then those tools are for you because you don't need to remember full syntax of SQL:
- If you want to sort results by column - Just click on header
- If you want to group data - Just click on header when pressing 'Alt' key
- If you want to filter data - Just type what you need, you don't need to remember about keywords such as 'LIKE' or 'IS NOT NULL' etc.
Those are only few of endless scenarios which can be simplified by those tools! You need to check this out! You won't regret it!