I work with an ERP software that has a convention for quite short table names, for example "SSRBLCK". I find myself often using the Describe Objects window, then navigating to the Script tab, just to get to the COMMENT ON TABLE x IS ... The Describe Objects window is often very slow/overkill for this. Can/is there a better way to get a Table description (for use in the Editor window), so that I can copy/paste the description into my SQL code?
Thanks! However, those checkmarks act more like optionbox and are exclusive. Getting the table comments would remove the column comments display. Also, I still end up loading the heavy Describe Objects window resources, when all I really want is the comment on the table.
If you check "show column comments in grid" then you can see all column comments and table comments at once. (You can use the widget in the top-left corner of the columns grid if you want to see fewer details there).
It shouldn't take but a second or two to load the describe window. You probably know this, but you can F4 on the table name in the editor to make it appear.
If the describe window opens too slowly, here are some things that you can to do make it load faster:
- Click the column selector widget in the top-left corner of the "Columns" grid. Uncheck Encryption Alg and Salt.
- Also uncheck Index Pos
- Also uncheck "Seq/Trigger". Then go to Options -> Schema Browser -> Data Tab. On the right, uncheck "Highlight columns populated by sequence/trigger pair".
Each of those steps will cause one less background query to fire as the describe window opens.
All that said, we're open to suggestions on other ways to do stuff. How would you like to see comment information?
Oh, here's a thought:
The Object Palette (main menu -> View -> Object Palette) can show table comments if you enable them here:
At present, it only shows table comments, not column comments, but column comments could be added at the bottom with the other column info (click 2nd toolbar button for column info)
If you are waiting for queries when the describe window opens, the object palette could be faster, but it would be more manual effort (to find the table/column in the list).
Hi John - thanks for those things. They make the describe window better for me. But, since you asked!: caveat my other primary IDE is Visual Studio 2019. I do like just being able to hover the mouse over text and have the IDE popup little transient balloons that give meta-data about what it is I'm looking at. Most of the time this isn't a problem, except in my Oracle world I'm only ever presented with curious table names like GUBINST. I normally describe the table, then copy/paste the COMMENT ON TABLE as a -- COMMENT in the SQL, so I'm not forced to remember what it's for and as a courtesy to the next developer to not have to open that slow window. Anything your team can think of to get that type of info into the Editor easier would be helpful 
