At the moment I am comparing a few different object/relational mapping tools (ORM:s), namely Linq to SQL, Entity Framework, NHibernate and MyGeneration Doodads. Both Linq to SQL and NHibernate have excellent features for writing all generated SQL statements to the console. Unfortunately it is not quite as easy in the other three.
Today I needed to debug a Subsonic query but could not find any information about how to output the generated SQL to the console. Finally I gave up and thought to myself that I would have been really great if Microsoft had included a SQL profiler in the SQL Server Express Editions. It then occurred to me that I had never really tried to find another SQL profiler, so a quick google search found SQL Server 2005/2008 Express Profiler which is an open source profiler for MS SQL Server Express, as you probably guessed.
The project home page is quite spartan and the GUI isn't the best ever, but it works. First of all you have to select which events you want to see in the trace. When that is set up you just press play, do you SQL-magic and watch the queries appear in the trace.
So, if you are using SQL Server Express it is absolutely worth a try.
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