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Are there any free, or cheap plug-ins/add-ons for SQL Management Studio that provide intellisense and (less importantly) some auto-formatting? I've recently tried Redgate's product and really like it for these features, but I'm wondering if there are any alternatives.

Ocelot20
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  • SSMSBoost is useful for SQL Server. It has snippets, go to object, go to database, pick recent connections, and a lot of features you can find. – JotaPardo Aug 08 '17 at 16:43

5 Answers5

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Late answer, but might be interesting to the thread visitors

Have you heard of ApexSQL Free tools - ApexSQL Complete and ApexSQL Refactor? These might be just what you need.

ApexSQL Complete autocompletes SQL keywords, and has a ton of other SQL Server productivity features for SSMS and Visual Studio, and it is completely free.

ApexSQL Refactor is SQL formatter with over 160 formatting options - it is too completely free.

Both of these are SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio plugins, so you can use them directly from within SSMS and VS.

Gabi985
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Check out our dbForge SQL Complete. It is an add-in for SSMSthat offers autocompletion and formatting of T-SQL code and supports SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008

Recently we have released a new major version (2.00) which includes much more new features.

There's two editions – Express, which is free and has basic autocomplete and formatting functionality, while Standard Edition offers more features, has 30-days free trial and costs only $49.95.

Devart
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  • This works for me, whereas I can't find intellisense in SSMS Toolspack. Thanks – StampedeXV Oct 08 '12 at 07:47
  • I'd avoid this now, if you are a fan of certain formatting. Since v4, the free version prevents you from qualifying your identifiers (columns and table names) as they are in the database. Pre-v4 it used to be an option in the free version to reference `dbo.TestTable` as `dbo.TestTable`. Now, you must use either one of these: `dbo.Testtable` (Initial Caps setting), `dbo.testtable` (all lower case setting) or `dbo.TESTTABLE` (all upper case setting). Have searched for an older version but turned up nothing. – Arran Dec 18 '12 at 10:21
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I think ssms toolspack is what you are looking for. I use it myself. Works from sql-server 2005+

bernd_k
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    Going to wait on marking this the answer to see if any other suggestions come around. The tools pack seems to do what I want, but installing it seems to have completely trashed my SQL Mgmt Studio. That and the fact that the website for this tool seems to have some errors leads me to believe it's not nearly as professional as the Red-Gate tools. – Ocelot20 Jan 04 '11 at 16:00
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    Going to mark this as the answer, but note that installing this thing has caused nothing but problems for me today so I can't say I recommend it. – Ocelot20 Jan 04 '11 at 18:27
  • @Ocelot20: what errors does the site have and in what way has the SSMS Tools Pack "trashed" your SSMS? – Mladen Prajdic Jan 14 '11 at 13:30
  • @Mladen Prajdic: I forget the error, I was just clicking around and got some (probably generic) error messages from the site. As for the Tools Pack, AFTER I installed it I was informed I needed the latest Mgmt Studio Service Packs via a message box. I clicked ok, but I couldn't do any useful function in Mgmt Studio without getting errors. I figured I just needed the service packs for both versions to jive, so I went and installed all the latest updates. Afterward I still got the message about it being out of date and still got all the error messages when trying to accomplish anything. – Ocelot20 Jan 14 '11 at 13:42
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    this is a common mistake i've seen people do: you need to upgrade the SSMS client tools and not the sql server itself. there's a difference. I support SSMS 2005 SP2 and up. After you upgrade it to required SP everything should work ok. – Mladen Prajdic Jan 14 '11 at 14:58
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    I just can't find the intellisense feature. Using SSMS 2008 R2. Built-in Intellisense is not working, neither do I find an option in the SSMS Toolspack. – StampedeXV Oct 04 '12 at 12:00
  • From my many years of experience with addons, ssms boost nor tools has autocomplete. The only which i use is sql assistant but it's too expensive and slow – Royi Namir Feb 17 '19 at 20:04
  • It's not a free tool. – Himanshu Aggarwal May 07 '19 at 09:09
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I am a big fan of the Red-Gate tools.

SQL Server 2008 has some of the intellisense built in when working with compatible servers. I've heard of but never tried the SMSS Tools Pack.

TGnat
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  • Does Red-Gate work on the SQL Server 2016 too? I did not find any thing about SQL Server 2016 in Red-Gate's website. Would you please share a link, if it works on SQL Server 2016 too? – Vahid Farahmandian Jan 12 '17 at 11:45
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For Intellisense style suggestions db Forge SQL Complete (Free Edition) works great for me. No lag in Management Studio that I experienced with some of the other free add-ins like SQL Prompt.

Didn't agree 100% with the Formatter so just don't use it.

DB: SQL Server 2005

IDE: SQL Server Mgmt Studio 2008 R2 & Visual 2008 Team Suite

Community
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Leroy Kahn
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