The UNIX/Linux version of ACT can tab-complete SQL commands and table names that you type. Tab-completion is not available in the Windows version of ACT.
To use this feature, type the first couple of letters of a command and hit the <Tab> key. If the completion is unambiguous, ACT completes the command. If ACT doesn’t complete the command, hit <Tab> again and ACT prints all the possible completions. Using the list as a reference, type enough additional characters to unambiguously identify the desired command or table, and hit <Tab> again to complete it. Here are a few common uses of tab completion:
- To complete common SQL commands. For example, type “se” and hit <Tab> to type SELECT.
- To list various ACT utility commands. For example, type \and hit <Tab> to show all the commands, or type \d and hit <Tab> to show all the commands that start with “d”.
- To complete a table name. For example, type “SELECT * FROM sa” and hit <Tab> to complete the table name or hit <Tab> twice show all the table names that start with “sa”. You can also list the names of all tables in the database by typing “SELECT * FROM ” (note the trailing space) and hitting <Tab> twice.