You can develop queries for both relational and XML data
by creating SQL and XQuery statements in the SQL and XQuery editor.
The tool supports the creation of one or more statements of either
type, as well as the nesting of either type of statement. Statements
that you create and save are stored in a file with the extension .sql.
The SQL and XQuery editor provides the following features:
- Top border
- The top border of the editor contains connection information and
command buttons.
- Command pane
- The Command pane, which is located at the top of the editor, contains
commands that are also available on the pop-up menu in the editor.
You can use either the Command pane or the pop-up menu to perform
the actions that are associated with the commands. You can hide the
Command pane while you are not using it.
- Multiple statement support
- You can type multiple statements in an .sql file and then run
them.
- Variable statement terminator
- By default, the SQL and XQuery editor uses a semicolon ( ; ) as
the default statement terminator. You can specify a different statement
terminator for the statements that you create in the SQL and XQuery
editor.
- Syntax highlighting
- To aid you in differentiating the elements in an SQL statement
or an XQuery statement, syntax highlighting renders different kinds
of elements in the text in unique colors.
- Content assist
- Content assist is an editing tool that provides you with helpful
information as you type an SQL or XQuery statement. For example, after
you type the dot that follows a schema qualifier in an SQL statement,
content assist supplies a list of the tables in the schema.
As you
develop your statement, you can press Ctrl + Space at any time to
see context-sensitive coding help in the content assist window.
- Query parsing and validation
- As you type, the parser checks the syntax of both SQL and XQuery
expressions, and provides a visual indication of any errors that it
detects in the query.