The User defined formatting profiles feature allows you to preserve all your SQL formatting settings you’ve defined in ApexSQL Refactor, and reuse them later to format a SQL script or a query. This is particularly helpful if you have to use the same convention as other users, or avoid situations in which a developer prefers SQL to be formatted in a particular way, only to have the formatting repeatedly changed by the DBA when it is submitted for review

• Save your preferred formatting options to a reusable profile
• Group and categorize formatting styles
• Quickly modify existing profiles
• Avoid formatting conflicts with users

Developers tend to write SQL fast, to get some initial results quickly, and at that point it is usually hard for others to read. By using an individual profile defined via this feature, every developer can format the SQL into a familiar and easily readable layout

To do so, open the Format SQL code -> Formatting options dialog from the ApexSQL Refactor main menu

The User defined formatting profile settings are located in the Formatting options dialog’s header

The predefined profile, named ApexSQL Default, contains what we determined was a good SQL formatting standard. But this can be readily modified.

The following commands are available:

New – creates a new Formatting template name editable by the user. The same can be achieved by typing the template name directly into the Formatting template combo box

Copy – If you want to make some changes based on an existing profile use the Copy command. It will create a copy of the currently selected profile can be edited and renamed later, while preserving the original

Delete – Use this button if you want to delete a currently selected template

To set a particular formatting profile as the default one, select the Use as default check box. On the other hand, you can quickly revert to the default profile by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+W