News
New SQL Prompt release addresses technical debt in legacy SQL code
July 2018 by Marc Jacob
The latest release of Redgate Software, SQL Prompt, elevates it from helping to develop and standardize
new code to discovering problems in legacy code. The winner of the Visual Studio
Magazine 2017 Reader’s Choice Gold Award in the productivity tools category, SQL
Prompt plugs into SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio, enabling
developers to write, format, refactor and analyze SQL code.
When SQL Prompt v9 launched in November 2017, it introduced a code analysis feature
which spots code issues and hidden pitfalls as users type. It parses the code as a
compiler would, but rather than compile the code, it checks the syntax for
compliance with a built-in set of over 90 rules. It then highlights each issue, or
‘code smell’, by underlining the offending line of code with a green squiggle.
Developers can see immediately any issues they’ve introduced, and clear
explanations and suggestions to improve their code and fix the errors are provided,
along with links to further reading online. This ensures that all code committed to
source control complies with a common set of coding standards and practices, and
prevents issues from creeping into the build that might, now or eventually, cause
performance, maintenance or security problems.
That’s not the end of the story. The latest update to SQL Prompt allows users to
analyze an entire script of legacy code, no matter how large, and see a list of all
the issues contained within it. If users double-click on an issue, they’ll see
that line highlighted in the code and can view more details. Code issues can also be
grouped by type and exported to a CSV file which can be shared across a team or
attached to a ticket in bug-tracking or task management software.
This makes it easy to learn about the health of certain sections of the database
code, or assign clean-up tasks, with each developer on a team assigned a set of
issue types. By acting as a worklist for improving overall code quality, it makes it
much easier to do code reviews, discover technical debt, and resolve small errors
before they become big problems.
It thus helps teams prevent technical debt from entering the code base, remove it
from existing code, and ensure that released code conforms to the team’s defined
coding standards.
Existing users of SQL Prompt can start using the new functionality immediately by
updating to the latest version using the Check for Updates link in the Help menu.
New users can explore the feature by downloading a fully-functional trial version of
the software from the Redgate website. Once installed, SQL Prompt will appear in the
standard menu of SQL Server Management Studio or Visual Studio and can be used just
like any other feature of the IDE.
