Today we will be talking about managing SQL objects and SQL code with IDERA’s SQL Admin Toolset. The SQL Admin Toolset is a user-based application that offers 24 different applets that can make a database administrator (DBA) or developer’s life easier. Two of those applets are Object Search and SQL Search.

The Object Search tool helps you find SQL objects like tables, views, stored procedures, triggers, functions, and all other SQL objects across your SQL environment. By searching for specific words or text used in the objects’ names. With this global search, you can quickly and easily determine where particular objects reside. Or how many times the same object, such as the login was created on different instances. To perform a search, open the applet and decide what you would like to connect to. You could connect you to the local SQL instance, a remote SQL Server. Or, if you have configured a server group in SQL Admin Toolset, you can connect to multiple instances. You also have the ability to put in different credentials. Either Windows or SQL. And you can test that connection here. You also have the ability to limit the search. So you can limit the results to the first 500 matches. You can use wildcards. You can have a case sensitive search. And you can also exclude system objects. Once you have entered the desired text that you would like to search for, just hit Perform Search. And the results will show up in the bottom portion of the applet. Here you can see we are looking at views, stored procedures, columns, any variety of SQL objects. You can copy the results to the clipboard. And save those results for later.

The SQL Search tool, on the other hand, helps you find specific words or text in SQL Server schema objects. Including tables, columns, T-SQL scripts, and other SQL code in use on an instance. With this global search, you can quickly and easily complete tasks such as updating copyright notices. Or changing all usages for a stored procedure call. To use SQL Search open the applet. And decide if you would like to search against your local instance or remote instance. You can supply different levels of credentials. Windows, or SQL. And you can also test the connection here. After you connect, you can decide if you would like to search just one database by putting that database in this field. Or if you leave this field blank, SQL Search will search against every database in that instance. To match the text in the search text box, you put the criteria like to search for. Then decide if you would like to search for just specific stored procedures, views, functions, triggers, or job steps. And you can also limit the results to the first 500. Perform a case sensitive searches. Use SQL wildcards. And include system databases. Or exclude system databases. Once you have decided what you would like to search for, just hit Perform Search. And the results will be displayed in the bottom half of the screen. You can copy the results to the clipboard. Or view the source.

These two applets make it pretty easy to manage code and manage SQL Server objects in Microsoft SQL Server. If you would like to trial SQL Admin Toolset, you can download it on www.idera.com.