SQL syntax highlighting and formatting in SQL Editor

[JohnJPS]

The SQL Editor window could have a better presentation of the SQL code; two issues observed

• First, that it's simply plain text without even a fixed-width font, much less syntax highlighting
• Second, if you type in some manually formatted SQL code (e.g. with line feeds and indentation), then click on the "Visual Query Builder" button, then click back to the "SQL Editor" button, all the formatting is lost as it is converted to one run-on line of code, which is very difficult to read.

I understand that going between the Visual Query Builder and the SQL Editor is bound to have some issues; nonetheless the "idea" is to allow a user friendly display in the SQL Editor window:

• Use a fixed width font, (should be trivial to implement)
• SQL formatter, implementation ideas can be found here: https://github.com/TaoK/PoorMansTSqlFormatter
• SQL syntax highlighting, implementation ideas can be found here: https://github.com/jdorn/sql-formatter

My "implementation ideas" are based on a couple minutes with google, so hopefully this is a very feasible request; my user base is very likely to spend more time in the SQL editor than not, so this would be a valuable UX addition.  Thanks!

[SeanAdams]

Very good idea - we use Aqua Data Studio to reformat and clean up query structuring (indenting etc) and then paste it back into alteryx.   As you say - this is a very easy thing to implement (text colour based on tokenizing SQL which has a very limited set of primitives / keywords); and creating a simple indenting scheme.

This would make SQL queries much easier to read and work with.

[JeffP]

+1!

[Matt_Curtis]

+1

[AliKat]

Yes, please! I'm trying to learn basic SQL commands, and this would be really helpful...

[shoesnsocks4]

+1

[NickDuncan]

+5

This would make a big difference for sql experienced analysts

@DawsonM @anthonyd @sharjosh @YeungDa @VizChic

[ydmuley]

This is a Great Idea!

It would be great to know the progress and possible timelines for the implementation!

1. Auto Format (Indentation of SQL Queries)

2. Intellisense while writing SQL Queries - This is a new suggestion

Thank You

[SeanAdams]

Fully agree with you @ydmuley

There are a few SQL related suggestion in the ideas section that may be worth adding your input to, give your deep knowledge of SQL!

[ARich]

This is not currently planned, but we'll consider this in the future.

[JohnJPS]

Thanks for the heads up Alex. For me this would be my #1 wish and I hope they at least consider some sort of fixed-width font and auto-formatting of the SQL, even if full-on syntax highlighting isn't offered.