SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2 Developer Edition intellisense not working

I installed Dev开发者_运维知识库eloper edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 and find out intellisense is not working or show as other developer talking about.

Is there anything else I need to do to get intellisense working in SQL Server Management Studio?

What I do to get it to work?

Maybe you need to "refresh" the intellisense cache.

3) IntelliSense should be refreshed with the latest changes in database. a) Press CTRL+SHIFT+R b) Go to Edit >> IntelliSense >> Refresh Local Cache

Full list of things to make sure of:

1. Connected to SQL Server 2008 edition
2. Intellisense enabled
3. Intellisense refreshed
4. Correct settings for "Statement completion"

Check here for a complete instructions with screenshots.

If you have recently installed Visual Studio 2010 SP1 you may be encountering a bug. Microsoft has confirmed that VS 2010 SP1 effectively breaks intellisense in SQL Management Studio.

Here are a couple of options you can try:

1. DevArt's SQL Complete -$0 free
2. RedGate's SQL Prompt - $195 <-You can find it at red-gate.com.

First and foremost you must be working with a SQL Server 2008+ instance, for the server to be able to give you the metadata for intellisense.

It is a fine art making intellisense work for you.

The first thing you can to do make it recognize the database context is to put

USE databasename;

at the top of your query window. This gives it a better grasp of where you are working.

The next thing you need to get used to is to write your queries in a different order, fill in the FROM clause first, so the skeleton should be something like

SELECT ^
FROM tblname

or

UPDATE tblname
SET ^

At the position marked ^, intellisense will have a good idea of what db/table context you are working in.

UPDATE a
SET a.^
FROM tblname a, tbl2 b

Without fully specifying the join condition, just listing the tables as above allows intellisense to work with a.

There are many other tricks, such as if you renamed objects, you're best off to start a new query window or disconnect from the server completely and reconnect, or even restarts SSM Studio.

Other reading:

• http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/using-intellisense-in-sql-server-2008/446
• http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/03/31/sql-server-2008-intellisense-does-not-work-enable-intellisense/

You also need to be talking to at least a 2008 server.