Appendix B. Using SQL Query Analyzer

As a relational database management system, SQL Server stores data, enforces security, maintains data integrity, and executes user queries to retrieve any requested data.

In a client/server environment, the client application sends queries to SQL Server to be executed at the server side and is the client application that manages the query results and presents them to the user. SQL Server provides a client application to execute queries and retrieve results; this application is SQL Query Analyzer.

Although SQL Query Analyzer does not pretend to substitute the role of a standard application, you cannot expect users to work with SQL Query Analyzer as their standard front end for database applications. However, SQL Query Analyzer is very useful for specific activities such as the following:

• Creating and testing the database objects during the development process

• Tuning and optimizing the database while in production

• Executing common administrative tasks

In this book, you use SQL Query Analyzer version 8.00.194, as included in the original release (RTM) of Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

This appendix teaches you how to

• Connect to SQL Server

• Set user options

• Write and execute queries

• Search for database objects

• Use the Object Browser to navigate your database structure

• Analyze queries

• Use the Transact-SQL Debugger