Recently I was showing a friend a query in SSMS, cause that’s what geeks do.  I typed ‘SELECT’ and then dragged the columns over to the query window.  He said “whoa, how did you do that?”  Which reminded me that we all learn little things that we assume everyone else knows but apparently not everyone knows them all.  That is why I love blogging, because I can share and when I read your blog I can learn what you share.  Maybe I know, maybe I do not.  The SQL community prospers either way.

So here is the tip:  If you grab the ‘Columns’ folder underneath the table in SSMS and drag it across to the query window, then all of the column names are listed which is helpful when you do not want to type 40 of the 50 columns that you want for a particular query.  It is a nice little trick, but I wish it would just drag a handful or that it would insert brackets in there but beggers can’t be choosers.  Or can they?  Enjoy!