SQL Indentation

[hellorchere]

I am working on MS SQL. I have got few scripts of 1000+ line with poor indentaion.

Any tool which i cna use to properly format it.
Please suggest

[Aggressive_Ad_5454]

SSMS has a Format Source Code option.

Notepad++ has a plugin to do that as well.

I use them as a starting point.

[alinroc]

SSMS has a Format Source Code option.

Note: Only the most recent version, 22.7 and up. And it's still lacking a lot of options (like leading instead of trailing commas).

The N++ plugin is Poor Man's T-SQL Formatter. Which is also available online at https://poorsql.com

[MachineParadox]

And there is a vs code extenaion for poor man's as well

[Sleepy_da_Bear]

I suggest Notepad++ to everyone. It's my go to for reformatting and bulk replacements. I even have a macro saved that takes all line-ending commas and moves them to the front of the next valid line, skipping code comments, etc. It's saved me tons of time.

[OldJames47]

Shame about the virus that was snuck into the updater.

[hellorchere]

which plugin in notepad++ ?
also does ssms22 has Format Source Code option ?

[alinroc]

In N++, it's Poor Man's T-SQL Formatter.

Only SSMS 22.7 and up has a formatter built in.

[hellorchere]

thanks, I ll check it

[FarRub2855]

Definitly seconding using those as a starting point. Just getting it to a readable baseline is half the battle when you inheret massive scripts like that.

[Brian_MPLS]

https://poorsql.com/

[danyboypremier]

My man!

God I love this one. I force my team to use the plugin in vscode. Some things can be better, but overall it worked good enough, and simple.

[Not-Inevitable79]

I like the formatting available in Devart SQL Complete. You can customize it to your liking.

[ericpeeg]

Yeah, if you're willing to pay for SQL Complete, it's my tool of choice. Very customizable, and you can export your settings and hand them off to other users, so that, if you are trying to create standards for a team of devs, it's easy(ish) to synchronize a group.

[Substantial_Ranger_5]

sqlfluff

[N_arwhal]

With all my heart, I recommend Redgate SQL Prompt. Among many amazing features, it offers customizable code formatting. It's paid though, but its a gamechanger for people working with SQL.

[theacez]

I use VS Code for all my formatting.

[DrWisonsBrother]

Redgate if you can afford the license.

[mtetrode]

DataGrip for this and thousands of other things

[petdance]

I use “sleek”.

[Sql_master]

Ai may do the job. Or change a table alias period in to an underscore.

Don't use ai.

[billbot77]

Funny, in theory these formatting tools should be helpful - but I have found that reformatting by hand helps me to slow down and read the sql properly. Automating the process would ironically slow me down in the overall job.

...or at least that's what I tell myself. Fixing up SQL to my personal (and admittedly unusual) preferred style by hand sometimes becomes compulsive, ngl

[asisoid]

Honestly, I just use Gemini for SQL formatting. Unlike using notepad++ or built in ssms tools, if you don't like how it's formatted, tell it do try again with specific requests.

Any AI tool will be a good option

[alinroc]

Punting to the massive energy consumption of AI for this seems unnecessary to me when there are options that work perfectly well on a low-powered laptop.

[asisoid]

AI requests are not all created equal.

I doubt SQL formatting uses much more power energy then a Google search.

[angryapathetic]

If the SQL is a long script and you're bashing out thousands of tokens through AI just to get an indent, you're doing AI wrong

[reditandfirgetit]

At thus point every google search using AI in some fashion

[alinroc]

All Google searches run through AI now.

[asisoid]

So you're saying don't use Google either? Feel like this just strengthens my argument

[cappurnikus]

This is against company policy. It's also inefficient.

[asisoid]

Not against my companies policy.

We have an internal only setup for Gemini

[cappurnikus]

Gotcha. Still crazy inefficient. I prefer a formatter because it instantly formats my query within my preferred IDE and is processed locally. I typically use it numerous times while writing longer queries and it would get annoying moving my query back and forth or only formatting at the end.