SSMS Red Squiggly Line

Often when you are working in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), tables, views, and other objects will get highlighted with a red squiggly line like SSMS does not know if the object exists or not in the database.

For an example, I am going to create a brand new table called Test_Asset2.

Now I will try an write a select statement using the new table.  As can be seen below, I get the red squiggly line and the note saying:  “Invalid Object Name”

We know that is not true because we just created the table!  The select statement will still work, but the editor does not think the table is there.

The problem is SSMS’ IntelliSense does not always refresh in a timely matter.  We can “force” it to refresh by pressing the following keys (all at the same time):   Ctrl – Shift – R

After we press the keys, the red squiggly line disappears because IntelliSense is now refreshed with all of the current objects in the database.

For a list of many, many other SSMS keyboard shortcuts, this link shows you all of them:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/sql-server-management-studio-keyboard-shortcuts?view=sql-server-2017