The Issue

So, the other day I am sitting around watching a bit of SQL Profiling on the old laptop, to see what a set of API requests were actually doing to a database, when I realised that there was no easy way to copy the all the executions into my documentation.

I tried all sorts from selecting all the rows and doing a copy and past to individually selecting just the execution rows and copying the statements from the preview window but I either ended up with statements in the wrong order or a stack of tabular data that turned to mush everytime a line feed was present.

All I wanted was the actual TextData column. Ah! I know, lets remove all the columns apart from that one and then copy and…… er no. All the columns were copied again.

By this point my head was hurting. Surely I am not asking for much here. Then, on came the lightbulb.  Dimely at first but within a few seconds was bright enough to mezmorise even the most streetwise of rabbits.

The Solution

Within the File | Save As menu is the option to save the trace as a table. Yep, a table. After that it was plain sailing with a sprinkle of complicated SQL (SELECT TextData FROM MyTrace) and a slice of copy and paste, I had my single column of data.  All that was left was remove the unwanted junk, using my good old friend Del, and job complete.

And there you go. A simple solution to what should be a simple task. I hope this tip is helpful and as usual, constructive critisism and suggestions are welcome.