I was asked if I would look at a new tool from a company I hadn’t heard of. It’s SQL Inspect from Yohz Software.
Nominally this is a SQL query editor. However, strictly as a query editor, especially when compared to what’s available in SQL 2008 or what tools like Red Gate’s SQLPrompt or SQLRefactor can do for you, it’s not so hot. Luckily, that’s not where its strengths lie. Instead, it’s all about performance tuning your queries and it does this very well indeed. It takes a query and returns a tree structured execution plan, looking a bit like the old text plans, but much more sophisticated with roll-ups, etc. It shows you all the details of the operations, just like an execution plan, but immediately accessible on the screen, like having the properties window open and expanded. You can record the results of the query and it will store the plan, the I/O, etc., off on the side. Then you can go back and tweak the query, rerun it to get new results and it will begin comparing these results to the original as a baseline. You can see the cost, duration, read & scan differences up or down, as you try out different queries. It shows the differences in the script and the differences in the query plan, side by side. For such a simple little tool, doing things you’ve got available elsewhere, it’s really great!
I’ve only scratched the surface trying it out, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a new tool in the tool belt.
They’ve got a trial period (who doesn’t these days) so you can try it out. It’s worth a look.