How do I edit/view data in a SQL database?

A. SQL 6.5 and earlier versions do not come with tools to directly view/edit the data in the SQL database visually. SQL 7.0 will include such a tool however in the meantime there are a number of options available.

Visual Interdev allows you to access the SQL data in a table form,however, I will describe a procedure using Access 97.

The first item is to create an ODBC link to the SQL database (unless it is the local server)

1. Start the ODBC control panel applet (Start - Settings - Control Panel - ODBC)
2. Under User Data Sources will be a list of data sources you can connect to. Click Add
3. Select SQL Server and click Finish
4. Enter a name for the source, a description and a server name/IP address. Click Next
5. Select the type of authentication and enter a username and password if applicable. Click Next
6. You can set the default database by clicking "Change the default database to" and selecting one. Click Next
7. Select character translation (except default) and click Next
8. Select log options and click Finish
9. At the end a summary will be displayed and click "Test Data Source" to perform a brief test. Click OK to complete
10. Close the ODBC dialog box by clicking OK

Now you have the connection you need to configure Access to use it

1. Start Access 97
2. Select Blank Database and click OK
3. Enter a name and directory, click Create
4. Select the Tables tab
5. From the File menu select Get External Data - Link Tables
6. In the bottom left corner of the displayed dialog will be "Files of type:". Change this to "ODBC databases"
7. A new dialog will be displayed. Click the "Machine Data Source" tab
8. Select the Data Source created using ODBC earlier and click OK
9. You may need to enter a password for the database.
10. You will now see "Link Table" dialog, select and click OK.
11. Under your main Table tab you will now see dbo.<database> and double clicking will give a graphical view.

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