SQL Prompt - highlighting matching objects

SQL Prompt is a code completion, code formatting, and refactoring tool for SQL Server. It’ll plug into SQL Server Management Studio or Visual Studio. You’ll find you can work more quickly and accurately with SQL queries, as well as standardize across your team by sharing formatting styles and commonly used SQL snippets. Try it free for 28 days at www.red-gate.com/sqlprompt

In this tip Data Platform MVP Grant Fritchey explains how to use SQL Prompt to highlight matching objects, which'll help you clearly differentiate between objects and aliases using the same name in large scripts.

For more tips for writing SQL effortlessly check out the #SuperSQLTips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhFdCK734P8A_q6XHDXi4CQzys3R0Jw3X

Transcript:
Hello my name is Grant Fritchey and I work for Redgate Software. Today I want tell you another tip about SQL Prompt. Now I've got a stored procedure I’m working on here and there's a lot going on – there’s stored procedures joining to a whole bunch of different tables, I've got a where clause, order by, and I’m referencing a lot of stuff it's. Actually it's kind of starting to get difficult to work with.

Now I could use ctrl f, let's say I'm looking up ‘preferred name’, that value there. But I've got a preferred name here, preferred name here, preferred name here, preferred name here, preferred name here, and I’m also using it down in the where clause, order by, oh my gosh I’m getting lost.

However SQL Prompt comes in and I can highlight this preferred name. You'll notice no other preferred names are highlighted but if I scroll down I will find the preferred name that I want to reference is highlighted. And the same thing goes with an alias: if I want to use preferred name say primary preferred name it will highlight that alias for me, and you'll notice the others are not highlighted, but the alias where it is used is again highlighted. That’s SQL Prompt giving me help finding stuff within my store procedure. Thanks my name is Grant Fritchey and I work for Redgate Software.