Extreme Data Systems has a great tool for searching SQL Server, a free download at their site. I’m not talking about searching for column names, object names, or table names, but rather searching for actual data within tables. SQL Locator seems to do a pretty good job with finding data so I thought I’d give them a plug. Rather than do some screen shots, videos, or whatever…just a plug here. Those other medium are available, just go Google them up.
A buddy mentioned the tool to me; the reason we needed it was because neither of us know the database that we’re working with, and actually backed into the correct set of tables to find a problem via searching for a primary key, which happened to be a GUID. Come to think, that’s the only time that a GUID has actually helped me! Anyway, we backed into our tables and then were able, via the nicely named FKs, join the tables and figure out our problem.
Check out SQL Locator and see if it works for you. As always with a tool such as this, be careful when using it against production data. Windows Authentication allows it to be installed on an alternate machine and point to production, but I’d still be on the cautious side because it does some crunching for sure.
Thanks,
Lee
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http://sqllocator.com/
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