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Provide a better SQL editor

Please provide a better SQL editor with syntax highlighting, indention, IntelliSense and using SQL comments in Access 2017.

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    Daniel Schunk shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

    23 comments

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      • melanie1 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        ok heres my comment:Please provide a better SQL editor with syntax highlighting, indention, IntelliSense and using SQL comments in Access 2017.

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        "No Current Plan" !!! that is so... so... sad, frustrating, disheartening... the current editor is so bad ... A lot of other "ideas" posted for improvements are a subset or variation of this request....

        Simply answering "No Current Plan"... I feel like I'm oblivious while on a sinking boat, ...

        and I agree with wilo (June 02, 2016 09:12), simply keeping from destroying the formatting (indentation, removal of "extra" parenthesis, etc) would have been a good start.

        At the very least Access should show a warning before messing things up (Ex.: Saving while in datasheet view/Opening the design window will reset formatting of the query text. Do you want to continue? Ok CANCEL)

      • David Peel commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        As far as I can see, there is no plan at all for desktop Access from Microsoft!

        The only new features added to Access since 2007 are to support web databases in whatever the current flavour that MS has decided would be a good idea this year.

      • Ben Sacheri commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I would like to recommend you look at the "Access SQL Editor" add-in from Field Effect, LLC which supports:
        ◾Syntax Highlighting
        ◾Comments
        ◾Line numbers
        ◾Search-and-replace, with regular expression support
        ◾Poor Man's SQL Formatter integration
        ◾Free trial. Full license is only $5.

        http://fieldeffect.info/wp/access-sql-editor-documentation/
        (I am a user, not the author)

      • Sam Smith commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        That's a shame as the SQL editor is the heart of what we do. Enhancing it seems like a great idea as at present it is just a 'dead' text entry box. A missed opportunity.

      • LD commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I use Notepad ++ where you can specify the language of the document.
        Available Language are SQL & Visual Basic and many more

      • Howard31 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        For a long time i was looking for a place where I can contact Microsoft regarding IntelliSense in the SQL editor of Access queries, finally I found it. I think it's long overdue.

      • Crystal commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        most important to me is ZOOM ... my eyes cannot read as well as they used to. I often have to copy SQL to Word just to read it because it is too small for me. I put a lot of SQL into Word anyway as I wrote a function to format it and there I can also search/replace -- would be nice if the SQL statement would be saved as formatted.

        Rather than revamping Access to be a word processor, how about if Word could be used as the editor?

      • Dolly commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Preserve text indentation, etc.
        Text Highlighting
        Formatting
        Find & Replace
        Better support for Union Queries
        Better support for SubQueries
        inline comments

        One version for the user to work with and a minimized/compiled version for Access to run is what I'm assuming needs to happen

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Including a separate font setting for the SQL code. Now the same font setting is shared between de grid designer and the SQL code editor. And add some color settings as well. Not just 16 colors like in VBE. That's really 90's.

      • [Deleted User] commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Oh yeah... the Access SQL Editor is worse than Notepad! How about throwing in the ability to script in T-SQL as well? The Access SQL Editor has always been so bad... I don't think anyone has ever taken the time to actually learn the flavor of Access SQL... I imagine most of us interested in this option would be mostly familiar with T-SQL

      • Heinz Hoegel commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        This is one of my favorite suggestions for developers for decades now (literally)! Maybe this time MS will listen...

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