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[SA 6] - UPDATE
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[SA 6] - UPDATE
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gemisigo



Joined: 11 Mar 2010
Posts: 2100

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The current layout of the keyboard is rubbish. Many of the useful keys are too far away for those who type with 10 fingers.

I'm using a highly customized version of the Dvorak layout with some "personal" additions. One of the frequently used keys, that are placed in a very bad location is Backspace. So, first of all, I've swapped the (hardly ever used) Caps Lock and Backspace by changing a few things in the Windows Registry and then turned my new Backs Lock into a semi-modifier key using AutoHotkey. Now Backs Lock is my most frequently used modifier. If pressed alone it does what Backspace originally did: it deletes one character to the left. But when it's used in tandem with some other keys it does some magic, eg. it turns the keys J, K, L, I (as found in original qwerty layout) into cursor keys, U/O into Home/End, P/\ into Page Up/Down, and many, many other things. Not having to move my hands from F/J on the home row gives a tremendous boost to my typing speed and completely negates the overhead of using the cursor keys.

The method SysOp described works pretty fast for me.

Also, the question marks inserted might be something in your preferences (brought over from earlier versions) interfering with the way it should work. I haven't seen those annoying question marks in a long time.
Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:57 am View user's profile Send private message
SysOp
Site Admin


Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 7833

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Quote:
For me the best solution will be the base behavior with possibility to choose in options if after writing part of the column name and hitting Tab/Enter it should append leftover of column name and equal mark with question mark or just only equal mark. So maybe proposal for feature in the next version


I will inquire if the question marks can be suppressed, I don't think it's optional now, even though the default setting is supposed to be inserting these specially formatted comments that magically disappear when you get close to them. The issue with comments based placeholders is that they are not specific to UPDATE statements, they are more or less generic. For example, if you type INSERT and pick a table with many columns without the comment based value placeholders you cannot see which value in the VALUES list matches its column in the INSERT columns list and so don't know for sure what to enter there. This is a very handy feature and it doesn't require extra keystrokes for the comments to be replaced, pure magic.


Now, if I may, I'm ready to bet that with UPDATE and expanded column list after table name it's much faster to click a bunch of columns to generate the skeleton of the UPDATE statement then to type column names one by one, even if they are all very unique and you need to type just one or two letters for each column to narrowly filter the list and select the column you need. Needless to say that in that case only one popup window appears on the screen, not a repeating popup for every column entered which also takes additional time and shifts eye focus. I believe that code entry method is much more efficient. But I certainly realize that specific usage is also a matter of taste and preferences. I will check with the team what can be done about the question marks and get back to you.
Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:18 am View user's profile Send private message
gemisigo



Joined: 11 Mar 2010
Posts: 2100

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I think he was referring to the overhead of moving your hand s from their desired position on the keyboard to the mouse/arrow keys and back. While that might seem a diminutive issue, I too agree, that it accumulates in the long run. Or even in the short one. My experience is that using filtering and the arrow keys is the fastest method, but it takes some (above mentioned) tweaking of the keyboard layout. It's on par with using a good quality touchpad where relocation of the hand is almost instant. Both using the mouse and typing the names are noticeably slower, with being the faster depending on the number of columns to be selected.
Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:42 am View user's profile Send private message
mgottvald



Joined: 30 Jul 2019
Posts: 14
Country: Czech Republic

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Quote:

Now, if I may, I'm ready to bet that with UPDATE and expanded column list after table name it's much faster to click a bunch of columns to generate the skeleton of the UPDATE statement then to type column names one by one, even if they are all very unique and you need to type just one or two letters for each column to narrowly filter the list and select the column you need. Needless to say that in that case only one popup window appears on the screen, not a repeating popup for every column entered which also takes additional time and shifts eye focus. I believe that code entry method is much more efficient. But I certainly realize that specific usage is also a matter of taste and preferences. I will check with the team what can be done about the question marks and get back to you.


As I said before, most of the time I am writing UPDATE of just one column. Bet is accepted :-). I am ready to proof that in this case it's fastest to just write and let sql assist only finish name of the table and chosen column with hitting Enter. If question mark will be removed it will be faster than Usain Bolt :-).

But seriously - thank you for your comments and hints. I am looking forward new version.
Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:05 am View user's profile Send private message
mgottvald



Joined: 30 Jul 2019
Posts: 14
Country: Czech Republic

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Just to let everybody knows. In DB Options, SQL Assistance for SQL Server, there is an option Auto Expand Placeholders with values:
Empty option
/*{ $NAME$ }*/
v_$NAME$
?
NULL

If you choose the first empty option, you will get exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you all.
Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:23 am View user's profile Send private message
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