This is a popular shortcut in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) but I continue to be amazed how many people aren’t aware of it.
Object Explorer is a very useful part of SSMS and you can drag pretty much any name that you see in it across to a query window.
You could do the same for each column in the Columns list.
You might also realize that you can hover over the asterisk and see a list of columns:
2025-05-07
Now that I’ve finished posting my T-SQL 101 series, it’s time to start another blog post series.
A few years back, I created a shortcuts series that covered how to use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) proficiently. I eventually added that all into a free eBook. It was updated in March 2019.
You can get a copy of it here:
SSMS version 21 is a huge shift from previous versions, so I thought it was time to revisit all the tips and tricks, to work out what still does or doesn’t work, and to add a bunch of new ones. V21 is based on the 64 bit version of Visual Studio, not the older 32 bit VS partner edition shell.
2025-05-05
