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Can anyone kindly tell me which one should I install to develop database applications using C#?

SSDT or SQL Server 2008 R2? Or both are the same?

RThomas
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Haroon A.
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2 Answers2

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It depends which environment you are more comfortable in, Visual Studio or SSMS.

But, I recommend SSDT. The main reasons are:

  • It is free
  • You can create your DB application and target multiple SQL Server platforms. And, you get platform-specific validation
  • SSDT provides Schema Compare
  • Integration of DB code with TFS
  • Deployment and management of your code changes is so much more easier
  • Better code validation engine including Code Analysis
  • Single integration development environment
  • Very similar behavior to SSMS
H A
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    SSDT also includes a SQL 2012 runtime, in the SqlLocalDb exe. This actually replaces SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition, and is the way forward. SSDT's SQLPROJ project type will be replacing the DBPROJ project type in VS v11 (or whatever it is named at release time). – Howard Hoffman Apr 03 '12 at 00:12
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This two software are two different things, one is a Database Server (SQL Server 2008 R2) the other (SSDT) is a set of tools that expands functionality of Visual Studio to allow the developer to use a lot of feature that are in SSMS directly inside Visual Studio.

So you can install both .

marc_s
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aleroot
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  • Can I Mr.aleroot restore a .bak file and make a backup with SQL Server 2008 R2 Express or not? – Haroon A. Feb 04 '12 at 08:14
  • Yes, absolutely. Take a look at this question : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6217679/create-restore-database-from-backup-sql-server-express – aleroot Feb 04 '12 at 08:18
  • So mr.aleroot it is better to install the SQL server 2008 management studio express which has the features of both SQL server 2008 R2 Express and SSDT? or what? – Haroon A. Feb 04 '12 at 08:58
  • It depends, maybe it is enough SQL Server 2008 + SMSS . – aleroot Feb 04 '12 at 09:06
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    SQL Server 2008 Management Studio even the Enterprise edition does not have all the capabilities of SSDT. In other words, SSDT is not a subset of SQL Server 2008 or even 2012. Some features overlap but not all such as Schema Compare. Use SSMS if you are a DBA and you want to do hardcore DB administration tasks such as backup/restore. Otherwise, use SSDT. – H A Mar 31 '12 at 06:02