Limited Query Builder in sql2005 sms

Can any body point me in the right direction before i pull all my hair out, (not much left).

Moving from sql 2000 to 2005, yes very pretty, but all i want 2do is quickly query a table, like u could in 2000 by right click the table name and select Query, my experiance of 2005 has been very frustrating, why remove useful features, not impressed.

anyway

Is it possible to invoke, from within the sql2005 sms, the Query Builder that is used in the Report Designer as this builder has 100% more functionality than the cut down version that comes standard in the very expensive sql2005 sms.

Any ideas?

Cheers

First, let me respond to clarify a 'mis-statement':

the very expensive sql2005 sms

SSMS is suprisingly enough, included with SQL Server. It is NOT sold separately, there is not a ''price' for SSMS.

Now, if you wish to use the query builder function, similar to the Access/Excel/SQL 2000 Query Builder, it is still available.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a dedicated menu entry. Hopefully, that will be corrected in a future release.

To use the query builder functionality, follow these steps (grumble if you want, but these are the steps...):

Right-click on a table, select [Open Table] The table will open in Grid format. If it is a large table, it could take some time, so you may wish to click on the 'Red' stop button in the bottom of the data pane. Then, in the toolbar, on the left, will be icons for the Diagram, Criteria, and SQL panes. Choose the ones you desire. Then, when your query is constructed, click on the [Execute SQL] button (the red exclamation mark).|||

Thank you for your condesending reply, nice to see you didnt actualy answer my question. in fact after a bit of browsing on and off this site this same limitation towards productivity has been brought up many times without being recified, as far back as 2005, your instructions are typical of the vacuum packed training many "experts" seem to excel in. if i opend a table for query like you suggest, a table that could have over 500,000,000 records in it, good use of server resources that, once ive managed to cancel the request, after about 10 clicks i could get a visual query editor of sorts, but i can only open that table once, very useful, we also get a "change type" button thats never active, start typing "insert into <tablename>" into the sql pain and the columns change in the criteria pain like as you would get if the could select "change type". As ive said previously these limitations were highlight by other users as far back a s2005, we still seem to be waiting for a decent interface.

As a paying customer, when i buy software, i receive, if im lucky, a cd to install, this cd installs the software I've purchased, usually, as far as im conserned the software that gets installed is what ive paid for, it dosent tell me this bit is free, or that bit is free, so give the, its free, what do u expect attitude. The problems ive experianced after purchasing this expensive product seems to have been shared by many within this forum, without be rectified. but not to worry it will all be sorted in the next version that us punters will have to pay up for again.

nice touch about the shoes, but when i buy a new pair of shoes, i pay decent money for them, because i can, and i get a pair that are as comfortable as my old ones, they have been Well designed and tested propely and are fit for purpose. glad i dont wear m$ shoes.

thanks again for you help and suggestions, your a credit to your profession! in my opinion.

|||The product can always can be as good as the responses from the field are. Microsoft introduced the http://connect.microsoft.com portal where customer can suggest new features and put up bugs which they encountered. These sites are monitored by the product teams, in fact they are doing periodic rounds to discuss effort for changes and impact on the product for bringing updates / feature in Serverice Releases / Service Packs. Feel free to post a connect suggestion and you will see that it will be picked up and answered soon.

Jens K. Suessmeyer

http://www.sqlserver2005.de