Auto replace shortcuts in Toad

A very handy tip for Toad for Oracle client: you can create shortcuts for the most used SQL statements or whole queries by adding them to Auto Replace list. Thanks to that feature when you’ll type the shortcut in the editor’s area Toad will automatically replace it with a pre-defined phrase.

Toad_Auto_replace

How to add an auto replace shortcut in Toad?

Go to View / Toad Options:

AutoReplaceToadMenu

Choose Editor / Behavior and click on Auto replace button.

Auto_replace_in_Toad

Let’s add three shortcuts for auto-replace:

 scaf - select count(*) from
 saf - select * from
 wer - where

Auto_replace_in_Toad2

Now after typing the shortcut Toad replaces it automatically with the whole phrase. You can also add shortcuts for whole SQL queries you use often. Keep in mind to create such shortcuts that won’t coincide with the names of objects like tables or columns.

You can achieve the same effect in SQL Developer client – I described it in the Auto replace shortcuts in Oracle SQL Developer post.