Ehancement: Col Value Inteligence

	SysOp wrote:
	The system catalog data for SQL Intellisense is cached in memory, else it would be so slow that it would be unusable. We cannot cache sample data for all columns in the database. And I'm certain that doing on the fly SELECT DISTINCT would kill it too. Unfortunately, that is not a feasible option.

Generally, the development phase DBs are lightweight. And let the user decide if he/she wants to enable this feature at the cost of performance lag. Don't cache col data beforehand. Populate on the fly. (maybe DISTINCT of TOP 1 to 1000 (configurable value; set 100 as default) ). Give a try to implement the suggestion with a pinch of salt; I am sure it will prove to be useful to many.

Yes. It can be done as an optional feature, so it can be turned on and off.

No, wait, what hitesh says does make sense. You don't have to cache anything. You don't even have to make it optional, everything is already there. It does require a few modifications but the goal could be achieved by using already existing elements and a little bit of twisting the destination of the data. Well, I guess.

Let's say you have the following in your code editor:

	Code:
	SELECT t.whatever FROM mytable AS t WHERE t.code = \|

and you have a nice, heart-warmingly blinking cursor at the pipe. Let's Alt+Click the desired column (to preserve the function of Ctrl+Click) to replace the contents of the popup that pops upon typing '=' (or open a new one) with the results that would be put into a result tab otherwise. Now you only have to select the desired value from the popup and it would be inserted into the editor the same way everything else would be. Or use a hotkey for the same workflow. That would be the quicker, more sophisticated but also harder-to-implement method (another guess), as it would have to infer which column was "alt-clicked" using the hotkey (yes, the one immediately before the '=', of course, but that could be buried at an arbitrary depth of function calls or whatever.)

	Quote:
	... replace the contents of the popup that pops upon typing '=' (or open a new one) with the results ..... Now you only have to select the desired value from the popup and it would be inserted into the editor the same way everything else would be...

Hmm, that's not how I have understood it first. In your translation is makes sense to me. I personally think that adding Alt+Click in addition to the existing Ctrl+Click would make things more confusing and more difficult to remember. I personally think adding action icons to the column balloon would be friendlier, and it would also enable multiple different kinds of actions, including "Values". Like in the object popup, when we Ctrl+mouse over the name (this is called hot-track feature) we see object's balloon containing Data, Code, Info actions in addition to the object Properties dialog link. I think similar UI for columns would be better. What do you think?

Well, this topic belongs to hitesh, I don't want to hijack it. I'm only throwing in my two cents (dimes, quarters, dollar bills, credit cards, whatever, just toss ideas in a random direction and watch them get stuck, or fall). But this discussion gave me an idea I want to turn into a separate enhancement suggestion (as soon as I get a few minutes of free time).

As you know, I'm all for speed and efficiency, so my ideal solution would be to give that feature a hotkey because that's the fastest possible, even if it has to be committed to muscle memory to be effective. I'm already using hundreds of them, one more wouldn't matter. I only mentioned Alt+click because I wouldn't like this feature to override Ctrl+clicking. But the hot-tracking-way is definitely an improvement over the current method. I'm sold. hitesh?

gemisigo wrote:

Well, this topic belongs to hitesh, I don't want to hijack it. I'm only throwing in my two cents (dimes, quarters, dollar bills, credit cards, whatever, just toss ideas in a random direction and watch them get stuck, or fall). But this discussion gave me an idea I want to turn into a separate enhancement suggestion (as soon as I get a few minutes of free time).

As you know, I'm all for speed and efficiency, so my ideal solution would be to give that feature a hotkey because that's the fastest possible, even if it has to be committed to muscle memory to be effective. I'm already using hundreds of them, one more wouldn't matter. I only mentioned Alt+click because I wouldn't like this feature to override Ctrl+clicking. But the hot-tracking-way is definitely an improvement over the current method. I'm sold. hitesh?

Like many, I am also a hard-core keyboard user, so expecting a user to pause typing and use Alt+Click on the desired column is a distraction from fluent code typing. One needs to pause the typing to get col-value intelligence. I would prefer ctrl+alt+space which is the nearest shortcut key I can use to access the col value popup. But that is my suggestion; u may decide the appropriate shortcut key as per access key availability.