SQL Server Portal

Sometimes lack of knowledge about the product irritates us. No matter, what product we are dealing with.
IntelliSence is one of the marvelous tools, that has been with us Since SQL Server 2008. It really helps us to speed up the development. However, sometimes it irritate as well ;). In SQL Server 2012, IntelliSence came up with two different modes inside to make our life more easier. Given below are the details.

• Completion Mode
• Suggestion Mode

Before proceeding with the explanation of these modes, I would like to enable Text Editor Toolbar to toggle between these two modes. Please note that it is not mandatory to enable text editor toolbar for toggling between modes but it is preferable to add because it helps us to see which mode we are in. Let me enable it step by step.

Step 1 :
First of all, you need to open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and select Tools and Customize…  option as shown in the image below.

Step 2 :
Once you select Customize… option, it will pop up Customize screen. You need to select Text Editor toolbar in it and press Close as shown below.

Step 3 :
In this step, you can see that Text editor toolbar is available in SSMS and Toggles between suggestion and standard completion modes and mode button is highlighted as shown below.

Once you enable the Text editor toolbar, let me explain what happens with each mode, with examples.

• Completion mode : All of us are aware of completion mode because in earlier days completion mode was selected by default in IntelliSence. However, the problem with this mode is, if the object names are symmetrical in database (not necessary) and we search for desired object and by mistake if the criteria matches the other object name (not required), it will select the other object automatically and if this activity is continuous, it irritates us. Please note that, this mode is enabled by default in SQL Server. Given below is the screen image of completion mode in which Toggles between suggestion and standard completion modes button is switched OFF and it means that we are in completion mode.

• Suggestion Mode : This mode is good for the developers if they are working on symmetrical object name database, and this mode of intelliSence just suggest the object name for us, it does not select it automatically like completion mode. You can Press CTRL + ATL + Space bar to switch in Suggestion mode. Given below is the screen image of suggestion mode in which Toggles between suggestion and standard completion modes button is switched ON and it means you are in suggestion mode.

Let me know if you used it in the real world examples and how it helped you.