Advanced Query Tool is a Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 based SQL

SQL

SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....

 query software tool used to administer and execute queries against the most common database management systems. AQT is created by a small New Zealand software company, Cardett, and is distributed and supported through the Internet. AQT is designed for use by database administrators and developers.

Architecture

AQT is a Windows application that uses ODBC to access the data, but is aware of the catalog structures of most common databases. This sets it apart from most software tools that use ODBC. The ODBC catalog is very slow on large systems, but AQT directly queries the catalog meta data of well known data base management systems, which makes it very fast for exploring the data structures of enterprise size data bases.

Catalog awareness is accomplished by using configuration files for each flavor of DBMS to define the queries to run against the data base catalog meta data. There are also separate configuration files for the administration component.

Data Base Management Systems of which AQT is aware of the catalog structure include IBM DB2

IBM DB2

The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...

, Oracle

Oracle database

The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....

, Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...

, Postgres, MySQL

MySQL

MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...

, Sybase

Sybase

Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....

, and Informix

Informix

IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing as well as integrated solutions...

.

License

There are three levels of licensing of AQT: the free download version, which limits certain functionality, the Standard License, which allows most functionality, and the Extended License, which allows full use including the administration tools, data compare, and the data loader.

Data Base Explorer

AQT allows multiple data base connections to be made. The connection can be made to any ODBC data base defined. For each connection there is a data base explorer window. The database explorer panel allows the user to display information about the data base objects in that data base. This is where AQT uses catalog queries rather than ODBC definition calls, which makes exploring data base meta data very fast.

SQL Editor

The SQL editor allows multiple statements, which can be run in order through a multiple statements dialog. There is a SQL formatter that makes hard to read SQL easier to read. The data base connection that will be the target of the SQL execution can be switched with a simple pull down. The results of the SQL go to a data window by default, but can also be directly exported to various file formats. Data base administrators find it useful to export the results of queries to another SQL window, which is useful for building and executing DDL

Data Definition Language

A data definition language or data description language is a syntax similar to a computer programming language for defining data structures, especially database schemas.-History:...

 using queries against the catalog meta data.

Data Window

In addition to simply displaying the results of a query, the data window allows the updating of the data in the window. The query results can also be exported to various file formats including MS-Excel spreadsheets, CSV files, plain text, insert statements, and HTML tables.

A recent sophisticated addition to the data window includes the ability to edit data in related tables. This allows the user to be editing a row of a table, and the rows of a child table that are related with in the same window.

GUI Query Builder

The GUI Query Builder allows building SQL queries with point and click simplicity, which is handy for novice SQL programmers.

Data Loader

AQT Extended Edition includes a data loader tool that makes it easy to load data into tables from various sources. The sources can be other tables on the same data base, a different data base, a completely different kind of data base (i.e. can load DB2 table from Oracle table), an Excel

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...

 spreadsheet, a comma delimited (CSV

Comma-separated values

A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

) file, a flat file, or even a complicated

Structure Compare

AQT can compare the structure of two tables from the same or different data base connections. The connections can even be of different types. For example, the structure of a DB2 table can be compared to the structure of an Oracle table. There are few data base administration tools that can do this with any ease.

Manage Authorities

From the Data Base Explorer screen, AQT Extended Edition enables data base administrators to grant and revoke privileges on data base objects with point and click techniques.

Data Compare

AQT Extended Edition can do a compare of all the data in a table to all the data in another tables. The tables can be on the same or different data bases. It can also do subsets of data, for example, the compare could be performed on the results of two queries, which can be real handy for verifying the results of SQL statements.

Scripting Feature

AQT allows creation and execution of scripts that allow instructions, parameters to be passed as part of a script file which can be run in interactive mode or in unattended mode. For example, a script may be created to export results of a query to a file, with a current date and a filename that is prompted for from the user.

History

AQT was created by an IBM Mainframe DB2 DBA from New Zealand who was frustrated by the lack of good query tools for DB2. He developed AQT on the side until he was able sell enough copies of AQT to be able to leave his day job and develop AQT full time. The complete history of every change in the product is well documented in the "What's New" section of the help.