For example, the database size can not exceed 10 GB and the SQL Server Agent feature is not supported by the Express editions. However, when we decide to use this edition, the supported features have to be checked in the Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019. We can use this edition for lightweight data-driven mobile, desktop or web applications. Nowadays, Microsoft has released the Express edition of SQL Server 2019.
Listing 1 shows the code for my custom ata snippet.SQL Express is a free and feature-limited edition of SQL Server that has been being published since the SQL Server 2005 version and it still continues to be published by Microsoft. This allows us to be a lot more versatile. You can use the same parameter value in several places in the snippet, but the entire parameter block, within the delimiters, must be identical, otherwise it will be repeated several times in the SSMS form. The default_value can itself contain a built-in placeholder. The parameter_name can be a complete sentence that explain what you expect to be entered for that parameter.
The template parameters are enclosed in angle brackets ( ) within the snippet, in the format:Īs far as I’m aware the data_type information is never used and can be safely left blank. You can even use SSMS templates directly as snippets if you were to add them to your snippet collection, because the parameters work as they always did. When you’ve finished, the snippet will be pasted into the query window with everything filled in using the details you supplied in the form. SQL Prompt will call the Specify Values for Template Parameters function in SSMS, and when you invoke the snippet you’re presented with a nice SSMS form for specifying all the template parameter values. It is a well-kept secret that you can use template parameters in snippets. Customizing snippets using template parameters As a DBA, you will just want the snippet to enforce certain minimum standards, such as specifying whether the column accepts NULLs, and making sure the new column is well-commented and documented.
Of course, one can end up over-complicating the snippet to cover all possible cases.
Does the new column accept NULL values? Should it have DEFAULT value? A CHECK constraint, or a UNIQUE constraint? A COLLATION specification? How do we document the purpose of the new column? All of this is still manual work. It gets you started, at least, but it doesn’t get you very far. It contains two custom placeholders, $table_name$ and $column_name$, and two built-in placeholders $SELECTIONEND$ and $SELECTIONSTART$, to specify that the INT should be selected after the snippet is applied. This snippet seems designed more to reassure you with its simplicity than to impress you with its versatility. Open the Snippet Manager from the SQL Prompt menu, and click on the ata snippet to see its code. As an example, how might we improve the ALTER TABLE ADD snippet, ‘ ata‘? The built-in ata snippet SQL Prompt also comes with many useful built-in snippets, but sometimes we need to do some customization work, to add the functionality we need. They have multiple replacement points (placeholders) for parameters, and you can invoke them directly from an SSMS query pane. They save coding time, and introduce standards and consistency to the way you build code modules.
Snippets are a great feature of SQL Prompt. He is a regular contributor to Simple Talk and SQLServerCentral. Phil Factor (real name withheld to protect the guilty), aka Database Mole, has 30 years of experience with database-intensive applications.ĭespite having once been shouted at by a furious Bill Gates at an exhibition in the early 1980s, he has remained resolutely anonymous throughout his career.