Features

With SQueAl, you can:-

• Connect to almost ANY data source: from a full-scale DBMS like Oracle, to a medium-scale database like Access, to a miniscule CSV file.
• Edit SQL statements (any number) using standard editing features, and open/save query files.
• Form queries using convenient features like auto-complete, and others that throw together common SQL statements and clauses.
• Execute SQL statements on a database connection, or even more than one connection at once; re-execute previously executed queries using Re-query and Back/Forward buttons that provide web-browser-like navigation.
• View and edit data returned by a query in a grid; special features to view/edit a large text field in a BIG window of its own, and directly save/load BLOBs to/from files.
• Convert data returned by a query into a variety of useful text formats, which can be saved to a file or copied to the clipboard.
• Use prehensile queries to have queries automatically pick up values from the results of a previous query (or other defined places) before executing.

Connect

• Connect to any database for which an OLE DB or ODBC driver is available. All you need to do is supply the connection string and authentication information for your database. NO change in features and user interface from database to database.
• Build a connection string using either the standard OLE DB 'Data Link Properties' dialog or one of SQueAl's helper dialogs.
• Maintain a list of previously used connections.
• Associate different window colors with different connections to easily distinguish between multiple connections.
• Choose the catalog/database you want to work with, from a combo box that lists all those present in your data source.

Edit SQL

• Edit any number of SQL statements. NO single-statement restriction.
• Use standard editing features (arrow keys, clipboard commands, word wrap, etc.). NO ridiculous requirement to invoke an external editor.
• Open and save query files. NO need to copy-paste across applications.
• Enclose a string literal in single quotes and take care of doubling all of its own single quotes, with just one keystroke.

Form Queries

• Browse a tree of tables and fields in the database.
• Build common queries to quickly put the simple but mechanical parts of a query into place, by choosing fields from a table and selecting a menu command.
• Copy names of tables and fields directly into your query, with just a double-click.
• Use automatic word completion (auto-complete) for table and field names, and any custom words you specify. You can type in either the first few letters of the name, or the initial letters of each word in the name.

Execute

• Simply select the command text and execute it. See the time taken to execute.
• Cancel execution, if your database driver supports it.
• Re-query or go back and forth between previously executed queries, by using and buttons, or even directly jump to a specific query in the history.
• Execute the same SQL statement on multiple connections with a single click or key-press. Using this, you can update or query multiple databases at once, or analyse the workability of the same SQL statement across different DBMS's or drivers.

View and Edit Data

• View and edit data in a grid. Update, insert and delete records using the grid, as an alternative to executing DML statements. Get warned when a record is not uniquely identified.
• Use a BIG window to view or edit a large text field - with the comfort of space, word wrapping, and saving/loading the text to/from a file: great for fields containing long descriptions or XML.
• BLOB handling: See the length of binary data instead of its non-text contents. Directly save/load binary data to/from a file - whose name can even be picked up from a text field in the same record.
• Accept or reject changes made to a record using buttons explicitly for this purpose, instead of requiring to move to another record to update implicitly.
• Toggle a lock to turn editing features on/off: so that efficiency and safety are not issues when you don't need to edit the data.

Convert Data

• Convert all or part of the data displayed in the grid to text that can be copied or saved, with one of the below transformations:-
  
  • CSV and Tab-delimited formats that can be imported by spreadsheet applications and other programs
  • SQL Insert statements that can be used as a script for copying data
  • An SQL set that can be used with the IN keyword in another SQL statement
  • A neat HTML table representation for quick publishing
  • A C array initializer list that can be dumped into C/C++ source code
• Considerations such as quoting strings and handling NULL values are taken into account. NO need to write a query that does manual formatting.

Use Prehensile Queries

• Use SQueAl's prehensile queries to avoid editing queries simply to change criterial values that can automatically be picked up from one of these known sources - by substituting special tags in the query:-
  
  • Pipe data from the field(s) in the results of a preceding query into the text of the next SQL statement executed.
  • Insert text from the clipboard into an SQL statement.
  • Specify additional custom name-value pairs for substitution.
• Re-execute these queries to pick up fresh values and navigate to a different set of records, without ever editing the query text.

In addition:-

• All features are accessible via keyboard shortcuts.
• A comprehensive help file explains each feature and how you could apply it.
• Installation is easy and clean: involving only copying of files. NO registry or system folder baggage.

And... all of this is available for:-

• FREE

You can download SQueAl here.