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HeidiSQL - MySQL and MSSQL Interface

I’ve worked with all three major databases at one time or the other.

My go to tool when working with MySQL databases has always been HeidiSQL. Oracle has the excellent Oracle SQL Developer.

And that leaves Microsoft SQL Server which I’ve blogged about before.

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to work with MSSQL again and found little to no improvements in the latest SQL Server Management Studio.

My improvements from my first post were still helpful but for whatever reason I just find SSMS very un-intuitive.

I went looking for any new tools since my last SSMS post was in 2011. Much to my surprise I noticed HeidiSQL now supported SQL Server!

Here are two quick things I find much easier to do in HeidiSQL compared to SSMS:

Editing

Want to edit a table cell in HeidiSQL? Query, double click in cell, edit, click again. Done.

I’ve never understood SSMS ‘Edit Top 200 Rows’ and all that weirdness. If I can edit in that view why can’t I edit in all the views?

Exporting Data

Much of my SQL interactions deals with pulling data to give to someone else. In SSMS I run a query and can save it as a CSV file or plain text. Just what my boss wants to see.

HeidiSQL gives me a few more options:

HeidiSQL Export Options

I can save CSV and text (like SSMS), but I can also save as HTML, XML and as a vanilla Excel file. I can also select specific rows to save or the entire result set.

Can you say, time saver!

I won’t say HeidiSQL can completely replace SSMS but if you need to do something quick I find it much easier to work with.