Welcome to Lesson 2 of the SQL Server 2000 Tutorial. In this lesson we will cover the Query Analyzer. I hope you enjoy the lesson.

Query Analyzer

Query Analyzer Tutorial

Query Analyzer  is used primarily for writing and debugging T-SQL.  Many of the administration aspects of SQL Server may also be done in Query Analyzer.  For example we can write a script to add users to a database.  To open Query Analyzer go to Start, All Programs, Microsoft SQL Server, Query Analyzer.

When opening Query Analyzer you will need to select the SQL Server to connect to as well as choose the type of authentication to use.  For simplicity we will select the (local) SQL Server and use Windows Authentication.

Depending on how logins are set up, when you connect with Query Analyzer, you will be put in the default database.  In this instance, our Windows Authentication login put us in the master database.  Use the database dropdown to change the database you want to work with.  Select the Northwind database form the dropdown.

With Query Analyzer we can write SQL statements to retrieve data from a database. Write a simple SQL statement SELECT * FROM employees and click the execute button

Here is the result:

There are many things that makes SQL Analyzer very powerful. For example when you are finished writing your SQL statements, you can go to Query, Display Estimated Execution Plan to see if the SQL statement you wrote was optimized.

 

We now see execution plan for this simple query.  We also see the cost of each step.

 

Developers would usually focus on the step that has the most cost and try to see if there is anything that can be done to improve the slowest step.  Hovering the mouse over the individual step will display more details about the step

We will revisit other features of Query Analyzer later in the tutorials.