Anne, great blog. 

I found an extension SSMS Keymap for Azure Data Studio, which maps the shortcuts in Azure Data Studio to the ones in SQL Server Management Studio. This works fine for me! You can read more about this in:

https://bobpusateri.com/archive/2018/12/getting-ssms-keyboard-shortcuts-in-azure-data-studio/

A scary thought, @Anne Buit, making a switch from a tool we are all so familiar with. But I think switching to Azure Data Studio is a safe bet. It seems all new developments take place in VS Code and Azure Data Studio, so it makes sense to take the plunge.

Personally I really like how Azure Data Studio handles JSON, instead of returning (a part of) the JSON string when creating JSON, Azure Data Studio does all the markup and syntax highlighting for you. Also you get the full output instead of just a part of it.

Thanks, there's some nice tips in here I didn't know about!

Here's another for auto-formatting code:

If you're searching for a way to auto-format your SQL-code according to the Thinkwise guidelines, there's an extension called ‘Redgate SQL prompt’ in which you can paste a ‘.formattingstyle’ file (JSON) that contains the formatting to your liking. 

See the following repository for more info:
https://github.com/incentro/thinkwise-redgate-sql-formatting-style

Change the .formattingstyle file to your liking.

Thanks to @Kevin Rosink for figuring this out and setting up the JSON file.

Does Redgate also work with Azure Data Studio?

Yes, that's why I posted it in this topic

(Ctrl + R is the default in SSMS btw)

Another extension i find rather useful when you are using azure data studio on multiple devices is the 'settings sync’ extension. This allows you to sync settings to your github account. On other devices you then install this extension and it will sync all your settings / extensions, so you don't have redo it all by hand.

After using it for a while I did install a couple extensions to make me more productive so I figured, why not share them here :

Github Copilot (GitHub.copilot)

Obviously, it increased productivity by a mile. Recommended to all developers.

Extra SQL Script As (pacoweb.extra-sql-script-as)

Allows you to script any table as insert, update, delete or select. It can save you a couple seconds to minutes based on the table definition size.

Query History (Microsoft.query-history)

Adds a Query History view for viewing and running past executed queries.

Simple Data Scripter (seanprice.simple-data-scripter)

I haven't used it much yet, but whenever I would need to script table data this will certainly come in handy. It takes a SQL query, and transforms the result into a script that you can reuse.

Theme: Monokai Dimmed (vscode.theme-monokai-dimmed)

The default dark mode is quite nice, but I found this one to be more suited to my liking:

Thank you for posting this also with the guide for installing, very usefull!

I have created an updated JSON file which is a bit more in line with our Guidelines

{
  "metadata": {
    "id": "97cd959c-08c1-4510-9a39-99bf6b606fac",
    "name": "Thinkwise Software"
  },
  "whitespace": {
    "newLines": {
      "preserveExistingEmptyLinesAfterBatchSeparator": false
    }
  },
  "lists": {
    "alignItemsAcrossClauses": false,
    "alignAliases": true,
    "placeCommasBeforeItems": true,
    "addSpaceAfterComma": false
  },
  "parentheses": {
    "collapseShortParenthesisContents": true,
    "collapseParenthesesShorterThan": 35
  },
  "casing": {
    "reservedKeywords": "lowercase",
    "builtInFunctions": "lowercase",
    "builtInDataTypes": "lowercase",
    "globalVariables": "lowercase",
    "useObjectDefinitionCase": true
  },
  "dml": {
    "collapseShortStatements": true,
    "collapseStatementsShorterThan": 35,
    "collapseShortSubqueries": true,
    "collapseSubqueriesShorterThan": 78
  },
  "ddl": {
    "alignDataTypesAndConstraints": true,
    "placeFirstProcedureParameterOnNewLine": "never",
    "collapseShortStatements": true,
    "collapseStatementsShorterThan": 55
  },
  "controlFlow": {
    "collapseStatementsShorterThan": 78
  },
  "cte": {
    "placeColumnsOnNewLine": true,
    "columnAlignment": "indented"
  },
  "variables": {
    "placeAssignedValueOnNewLineIfLongerThanMaxLineLength": false
  },
  "joinStatements": {
    "join": {
      "keywordAlignment": "toTable",
      "indentJoinTable": false
    },
    "on": {
      "keywordAlignment": "rightAlignedToInner"
    }
  },
  "insertStatements": {
    "columns": {
      "parenthesisStyle": "compactSimple",
      "indentContents": false
    },
    "values": {
      "parenthesisStyle": "expandedSimple",
      "placeSubsequentValuesOnNewLines": "always"
    }
  },
  "caseExpressions": {
    "placeExpressionOnNewLine": false,
    "whenAlignment": "toFirstItem",
    "collapseCaseExpressionsShorterThan": 55
  },
  "operators": {
    "comparison": {
      "align": true
    },
    "andOr": {
      "alignment": "rightAligned"
    },
    "between": {
      "placeOnNewLine": false
    },
    "in": {
      "placeFirstValueOnNewLine": "never"
    }
  }
}

 

Similar to the keyboard shortcut ALT+F1 for sp_help, you can employ a shortcut to execute a "select * from [table]" query.

1. Navigate to "Open User Settings."
2. Search for an unused shortcut. In this case “shortcut5”.
3. Add the select query: "select * from {arg}" or "select top 100 * from {arg}"

   

    

4. Navigate to Keyboard Shortcuts.
5. Search for shortcut5 and add your preferred keybinding.

   

6. Select the table name in the query designer and press your keybinding

   

   
   Credits to @Mark for helping figure out how this works