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Sql Formatting Tool

18 June 2014

Few days ago I faced following challenge. SQL profiler gave me ugly SQL, which was unreadable for my eyes.

For example like this:

exec sp_executesql N'SELECT APAddress.AddressID, APAddress.VendorID, APAddress.VendorAddressID, APAddress.IsDefaultAddress, APAddress.RevisionID, APAddress.AddressLine1, APAddress.AddressLine2, APAddress.AddressLine3, APAddress.City, APAddress.CountryID, APAddress.State, APAddress.PostalCode, APAddress.IsValidated, APAddress.tstamp, APAddress.CreatedByID, APAddress.CreatedByScreenID, APAddress.CreatedDateTime, APAddress.LastModifiedByID, APAddress.LastModifiedByScreenID, APAddress.LastModifiedDateTime FROM APAddress APAddress WHERE (APAddress.CompanyID = 2) AND  ( APAddress.AddressID = @P0) ORDER BY APAddress.AddressID /* admin@AP.30.40.00 */',N'@P0 int',@P0=-2147483647

If you can read it, congratulations, you are genius and I'm envy of you so you can stop reading further. But if you are just programmer as me, then the next step is the following:

1. remove exec sp_executesql 

2. In some editor find and replace @P0 with value -2147483647

3. remove tail /* admin@AP.30.40.00 */',N'@P0 int',@P0=-2147483647

4. Navigate in your browser to http://www.dpriver.com/pp/sqlformat.htm

5. Copy/Paste in window and choose format mssql

6. Press format SQL.

Compare previous sql with the following:

SELECT apaddress.addressid,
       apaddress.vendorid,
       apaddress.vendoraddressid,
       apaddress.isdefaultaddress,
       apaddress.revisionid,
       apaddress.addressline1,
       apaddress.addressline2,
       apaddress.addressline3,
       apaddress.city,
       apaddress.countryid,
       apaddress.state,
       apaddress.postalcode,
       apaddress.isvalidated,
       apaddress.tstamp,
       apaddress.createdbyid,
       apaddress.createdbyscreenid,
       apaddress.createddatetime,
       apaddress.lastmodifiedbyid,
       apaddress.lastmodifiedbyscreenid,
       apaddress.lastmodifieddatetime
FROM   apaddress APAddress
WHERE  ( apaddress.companyid = 2 )
       AND ( apaddress.addressid = -2147483647 )
ORDER  BY apaddress.addressid 

IMHO the second option is easier to read.

4 Comments

  • Tim Rodman said 

    Nice tip. I didn't know about that website.

    I use the SQL Prompt plug-in from Red Gate which installs as a menu in SQL Management Studio. You can also format SQL using this tool.

  • docotor said

    Nice tool. IMHO even better then web site. But according to http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-prompt/

    "SQL Prompt starts at $369 per user" For now I'm not ready to pay to redgate such amount

  • Tim Rodman said

    I agree, it's a little pricey, especially if you can't get your company to pay for it.

    It does save time when writing code because it auto-completes columns, tables, even table joins for you. But, if you're just looking for a formatting tool, the website works great.

  • anonymous said 

    Freeware:
    Notepad++ has an add-in called "Poor Man's Sql Formatter"

    http://www.architectshack.com/PoorMansTSqlFormatter.ashx