Free add-in for "SELECT * FROM" in Management Studio

SQL Server Administration
1

Hello,
for SQL Server Management Studio, is there a free add-in (or something similar) that writes for me the "SELECT * FROM" string in a new query windows?

Thanks a lot.

Luigi

2

You have a few options already built-in to the tool.

  1. In the Object Explorer click on the Databases node and find the database you want. Expand the tables section and find the table you want. Right click on the table and choose the option "Select Top 1000 Rows" and you get the same as "SELECT * FROM" but limited (you can control how many rows easily).
  2. Another option is to use the Query By Example function where you can build a query similar to other tools such as Access. Open a new Query window and from the Query menu select "Design Query in Editor" where you can choose what tables you want, how to JOIN them, WHERE criteria, etc. I don't recommend using this long-term but it can help get started.
1 Like
3

You can also script the select from a table/view - just right-click on the table, select script table as - then select SELECT to...

This will script a select statement with all columns listed instead of SELECT *...

There are also some paid tools that provide both intellisense and formatting options - and some of them provide options to expand * to all columns. Yes - you have to pay for them but they can be quite useful and well worth the investment.

1 Like
4

Hi

i know this from Oct '19

There are ... SSMS Query Short Cuts
where you can assign a query shortcut to "SELECT * FROM" like Ctrl+1

if you just press Ctrl+1 after selecting a Table in SSMS Query Window
then it runs SELECT * FROM for that table ...

Please wach ... the following video