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What features are Toad ™ users most grateful for? A recent poll of the Toad for Oracle Yahoo! users group revealed the answers.

The questions: Do any of you have a feature or tip you wish you had known about earlier? Maybe you JUST found out that Toad can do 'X' and save you 15 minutes a day. What is it exactly that makes Toad, Toad?

From user "CZ" - The table data import and the code export and the ability to insert a column into a table as if you were in, um, some gui-er program... these I use a lot. I love being able to see my snapshot code, so I can easily grab the original table name if I need it for the other schema. Also love the dependency tabs, great for when I have to rewrite the world and make sure it still works . . . And being able to see when snapshots were last updated and tables last analyzed at a glance. How about a drop-down box for choosing your tablespace when creating a table, now that is too cool. And for some reason, exporting to XLS instance makes me happy . . . . oh, and export to HTML table to the clipboard is great for pasting something in an email to send to someone... Hmm, maybe I'm just too naïve, cuz I was given free toad as soon as I started working in Oracle and I've had real toad for about 4 months, maybe, and I'm a happy Oracle faker.

From user "CP" - Object search has to be the best. When making an change to an existing object/package/procedure etc- object search is very useful for identifying dependencies.

From user "DS" - Save As... to Excel is a great way to do a quick data dump to users. In the same way, the ability to load data from an Excel spreadsheet is miles ahead of having to use SQL*Loader. Oh, and Code Formatting! Lets me type away like a pig and easily pretty it up later.

From user "DC" - Oh, man, do I. There are lots of things I really like about Toad, but one thing that stands out is the save to XLS instance. I do a lot of smallish data sets to prove things to customers, and this saves so much time it isn't funny. The way I found out about it is that we had some Quest reps in about a year ago doing a dog & pony show on the product. They whipped by it during the demo, and I was shocked. After they were done, I made them show me how it worked. All in all, it seems kind of silly to miss something like this. On the other hand, I'm coming into a very mature product with lots of features. I suspect missing one isn't that uncommon (and it makes me wonder what ELSE I'm missing . . . )

From user "DS" - I'm in the process of a huge migration from 8i to 10g - so we're doing a lot of moving of objects. I thank the TOAD gods every day for: 1. "create script" on multiple objects, sorted correctly, with triggers AND - creating the insert statements at the same time! - so that I can go in and tweak the things I need to tweak for 10g and then run the whole script, creating tables and importing data in one fell swoop. Man that's saved me a lot of time. 2. Then, when everythings ready in the dev of 10g, create in another schema and copy data to another schema are my very very good friends. 3. custom code snippets make me happy. (Side note here - in another program that I use, there's something called a code template that is basically a code snippet controlled by a letter sequence & key command with a marker for where your cursor should end up when the code snippet is inserted. So, for instance, I can type js and hit control j and insert a javascript block with my cursor positioned to type the actual js code. I'd loooooove to see that in TOAD as well.) 4. Save as excel and import from Excel.

From user "JF" - While others have mentioned several of my favorite TOAD features, I must mention the Master Detail browser. This has come in especially handy with an application that I maintain that has a complex master-detail-detail structure. I've appreciated the fact that the latest version doesn't have as tight dependency on the foreign keys, so that now I can start at the details and build to the masters too. My structure goes down one hierarchy, then has an intersection table that leads you up another hierarchy.

From user "JC" - "compare with another object" object to file and object to object. It's a life saver when trying to figure out if a random version of some file actually represents the version on the database.

From user "LM" - Some of my favorites are: 1. Importing data - dba, import. 2. SQL Modeler - make on the fly queries. 3. Formatting code. 4. Saving the grid as excel spreadsheets. 5. Saving the grid as insert into statements and using those statements to insert data into another schema. 6. Compare schema is awesome if you are converting schemas to another server. 7. Tune sql scripts by using query viewer to determine how many seconds/milliseconds a script takes to return rows. 8. Schema Browser - oh my gosh - just to view triggers and sequences and data and filtering data in a few seconds, disabling, enabling triggers, looking at the scripts easily behind views (for people who have done this blindly in SQL*Plus - this is wonderful.)

From user "MM" - Firstly, I love TOAD. I really appreciate the inclusion of Fast Reports into TOAD. It's very exciting! PS, my favorite - Master-Detail browser.

From user "PH" - How do I love TOAD? Let me count the ways... 1. Being able to F4 Describe to get details on an object while I’m coding. Sometimes I forget that the help key in other applications is F1 2. Formatter 3. Being able to look at roles/grants/users/etc. so easily 4. SQL Monitor – not only for using in conjunction with TOAD but also with other applications. It is through the ability to view the queries in TOAD that I have learned what I know of the data dictionary and to be able to use that knowledge to put together tools to generate code for our in house apps based on table structures, etc. 5. The Explain Plan 6. Script Manager – I use that all the time to compile sets of packages and views that I’m working on at a certain time in our various test and development schemas, and then when we’re ready to roll out the code, in the production schema 7. Project Manager 8. The import wizard. As a non-DBA who needs to maintain a personal Oracle database, that has allowed me to do the imports quickly and easily without necessarily having to know the technical ins and outs of what I’m doing. 9. All the little ways TOAD allows me to focus on doing what I know well instead of having to jump through hoops to accomplish what I need to. 10. The developers and their involvement with the user requests and their obvious ownership of the product. There are very few commercial products in which the developers take such an active role in communicating with the users and receiving feedback and implementing requested features. I like the fact that working on TOAD is almost more of a passion for you guys than just a job. It shows, and I truly believe that it is one of the key ingredients that makes TOAD the best tool available. (Okay, I admit that this is just the tip of the iceberg as to how I love TOAD, but it does make a good start)

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