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For those of you have have experience of this, what particular tools would you recommend?
MS Access
MS Visual Studio
SQL Management Studio
etc?
For use with SQL Server 2008 R2 as part of an online booking system with multiple tables and relationships, and incorporated into an ASP.Net site.
Both SQL Management Studio and Visual Studio are good options. With Visual Studio you can work with the database and your projects in one window. You can do most basic database operations in Visual Studio. SQL Management gives you additional options and flexibility like backing up database wizard, SQL Profiler, Execution Plan
I would go with SQL Management Studio. I've worked with it before and it met all demands, and didn't have any problems. And I would think with SQL Server 2008 R2 it wold be a safe choice.
Your question is a little vague, so I'm going to give an answer that is probably a little more broad than you need.
TL;DR - SSMS gives a great development environment for databases.
Typically, when building a new system, I design my data structures on a whiteboard. Once these are pretty well defined, I put them into SQL using SSMS's table designer, including Primary Keys and Foreign Keys, but no additional indexes.
Once I have the basic layout defined, I'll generate a Database Diagram, print it out, and review to make sure 1) I've built the system as defined, and 2) I don't see any glaring items that are missing. Assuming no issues, I'll start development.
At this point, if I want to use Entity Framework, I can just use the DB-First method, and I'm ready to go. If I want to use an alternate method, such as DataReaders/DataSets, I'm also good to go.
Any views, stored procedures, etc I build by hand inside of SSMS.
I leave out indexes until a good portion of the functionality is complete, so as to not prematurely create indexes that end up giving no value.
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Is there a database diagramming tool for SQL Server 2012 that does not affect the underlying database structure? I have a collection of tables that currently don't have any relationships defined. I would like to diagram the database tables to demonstrate where we should setup some relationships.
I was starting to use the diagramming tool in SSMS 2012, however from what I understand the underlying database will be changed as I add relationships and/or change table structures. I am just looking for a solution to diagram out possible changes rather than implement them.
Also, I am looking to avoid having to type in all the column names since the tables can contain a large number of columns.
You can right click on you DB the choose Generate Scripts
Then click Next until you have the option to choose Advanced
Click on Advanced, choose what you want to include in your scripts and Finish the process.
Then just run the script generated to create a new exact same DB where you will use the designer.
Visio (prior to Visio 2013) can be used to diagram database tables. Check out the Reverse Engineer option. The instructions here should help with creating the diagram. The changes you make can be saved locally without affecting the database.
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I'm looking for a SQL Server client that will run on Mac OS X. Ideally, I'd like something lightweight that allows me to easily browse the schema, run adhoc queries, highlight SQL syntax, etc.
I really like SQL Yog, so something like that would be perfect, any recommendations?
You may like SQLPro for MSSQL (App Store).
The app has a few neat features such as:
Syntax highlighting.
Intellisense.
Tabbed based interface.
Support for executing multiple queries at once.
Quick access to tables, columns and more.
Query primary key detection and the ability to edit/delete/insert rows directory from query results.
Support for MSSQL 2005+ database, including those hosted on Azure.
NTLMv2 supported (but not required).
Netbios hostnames supported.
There is a seven day trial available via the website. If you purchase via our website, use the promo code STACK25 to save 25%.
Disclaimer: I'm the developer.
I would suggest you NAVICAT. It's not free but it's not that expensive either. Other than that, any JDBC based solution would work, although they might not be as lightweight as you may want. SQuirreL SQL is pretty good.
Have you tried Aqua Data Studio? It's not very lightweight but if the database is small it should handle it easily.
DBVisualizer. Been around for a while. Not the cheapest but has a lot of bell/whistles and works very consistently bet/ MAC and Windows.
Supports all commercial/popular DBs.
http://www.dbvis.com/
You may like Valentina Studio, which is FREE for its 80% of features. Some advanced features go as Pro Edition.
The app has a few neat features such as:
Syntax highlighting.
Intellisense.
Tabbed based interface.
Support for executing multiple queries at once.
Quick access to tables, columns and more.
Support for MSSQL 2005+ database, including those hosted on Azure.
Have powerful Report Tools
Query Builder
Schema Editor
Diagram Editor, forward and reverse engineering
Data Editor with unique Related Tables feature
SQL Diff
Works in mac, win and Linux also. Natively. C++ app.
etc and etc
Disclaimer: I'm from Paradigma Software.
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Are there any tools that do Query Optimizations for SQL Server 2005 and above?
I've searched & didn't find anything.
What do you recommend?
If this Question was repeated before you can close it but I didn't see anything similar
The best tool I've ever used for optimizing queries in MS SQL Server, by far, is the "Include Actual Execution Plan" option in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. It displays detailed information about the execution path taken by the server when running your query. (Note that this works best when there's data in the tables. Of course, without a good bit of test data, any optimization is purely theoretical anyway.)
It basically gives you three very important things:
It tells you which steps take the most processing time and what they're doing at that step.
It tells you which steps carry the most data to the next step, including how many records, which helps identify places where you can be more specific about the data you want and exclude unnecessary records.
It gives you a ton of insight into the inner workings of SQL Server and what it does with your queries. This knowledge will help you optimize things a lot over time.
In SSMS - Tools | Database Engine Tuning Advisor - Does not work on Express versions.
One very good tool and now free for use is Plan Explorer from SentryOne: https://sentryone.com/plan-explorer
(they also have many other optimization software, like Azure specific software etc.)
One of the best query optimizers is just running the query in SQL Management Studio, and then inspecting the query plan. This will give you clues as to what indexes it is (or is not) using, and how you can change the query to take advantage of those.
As John Saunders commented, the best tool at your disposal is your own mind. Following bernd_k's comment, here are a few suggestions for sharpening that tool.
SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled
Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting
SQL Server MVP Deep Dives
Also this is a good tool for monitor and optimize queries:
Sql Monitor by Red Gate
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I have a MSSQL2005 DB with about 140 tables. I want to create either an accessible diagram or a printable API type document with the table structure. Is there a program that offers this kind of db visualization?
I find the diagramming built into SQL Server to be very clunky and very inaccessible for my DB size.
Take a look at SQL Doc.
I always used Visio for this type of thing.
I like Toad Data Modeler for this. It reverse-engineers Microsoft SQL Server databases (and other brands of databases too), but more than that, you can start making your modeling changes inside the tool and it'll generate change scripts.
If you use somebody else's tool, make sure that you can round trip changes - meaning, if you put all the time and effort into getting your documentation right, and then you change the database inside SQL, can you re-import your changes from the database without overwriting your work in the documentation tool? Most of 'em don't do that, but Toad Data Modeler does.
(Disclaimer - I work for Quest. I used this program before Quest bought it, though, and always loved it.)
http://www.quest.com/toad-data-modeler/
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Is there a way to produce a diagram showing existing tables and their relationships given a connection to a database?
This is for SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.
Yes you can use SQL Server 2008 itself but you need to install SQL Server Management Studio Express (if not installed ) . Just right Click on Database Diagrams and create new diagram. Select the exisiting tables and if you have specified the references in your tables properly. You will be able to see the complete diagram of selected tables.
For further reference see Getting started with SQL Server database diagrams
Try DBVis - download at https://www.dbvis.com/download - there is a pro version (not needed) and a open version that should suffice.
All you have to do is to get the right JDBC - database driver for SQL Server, the tool shows tables and references orthogonal, hierarchical, in a circle ;-) etc. just by pressing one single button. I use the free version for years now.
SQLDeveloper can do this.
http://sqldeveloper.solyp.com/
For SQL statements you can try reverse snowflakes. You can join at sourceforge or the demo site at http://snowflakejoins.com/.
Why don't you just use the database diagram functionality built into SQL Server?
Visio Professional has a database reverse-engineering feature if yiu create a database diagram. It's not free but is fairly ubiquitous in most companies and should be fairly easy to get.
Note that Visio 2003 does not play nicely with SQL2005 or SQL2008 for reverse engineering - you will need to get 2007.
DeZign for Databases should be able to do this just fine.
SchemaCrawler for SQL Server can generate database diagrams, with the help of GraphViz. Foreign key relationships are displayed (and can even be inferred, using naming conventions), and tables and columns can be excluded using regular expressions.
MySQL WorkBench is free software and is developed by Oracle, you can import an SQL File or specify a database and it will generate an SQL Diagram which you can move around to make it more visually appealing.
It runs on GNU/Linux and Windows and it's free and has a professional look..