Viewing Data in a Database Table

When you have configured a data source, you can use the Data View window to view database records from within the program.

Once you have configured a data source, you can access its database tables from within the program. The Data View is a window where you can view and edit database records. Database tables can be opened as read-only or for editing. You cannot add, delete, or edit records in a database table that you open in Read-only mode. Opening a database table establishes a connection to its parent database. Some database systems require that you enter a valid user name and password before you can connect to them.

The Data View window is a spreadsheet-like environment that presents a database table's records. With the scroll bars and navigation buttons at the right and at the bottom of the window, you can move through the record set.

The grid in the Data View window contains the following elements:

• Column header. Selects all records in a column when you click it.
• Record header. Selects an individual record when you click it.
• Grid cells. Selects one field of a given record when you click it.
• Grid header. Selects the entire database table.

The Data View window provides a great deal of flexibility in how records are displayed. You can

• Move or resize columns
• Hide columns to remove them from the Data View window display
• Sort column data in ascending or descending order
• Freeze a column or combination of columns so that they stay in place and do not scroll with the horizontal scroll bar
• Align text within individual columns
• Apply a variety of font styles and sizes to the Data View window display

Column formatting and database table sorts in the Data View window are not stored. This information is discarded when you open a new database table or close the current table. If you want to create and save a formatted report, you must copy the contents of the Data View window to the Clipboard and paste it into an external program such as Microsoft Excel. You can then use the external program to apply and save the desired formatting. For details about creating a template, refer to the documentation of the external program that you are using to format the data.

Database Views and External Queries

Some database management systems support views. Views provide additional ways to display data from a database table. For example, you can use a view to display a subset of the overall database table. You can also use views to define relationships between database tables and create a new table that contains combined records from the original database tables.

Database systems that do not support views can produce similar results with queries. Refer to your database system documentation for information about creating and working with views and queries.

Views and external queries are displayed in the Data Sources node of the dbConnect Manager. External queries are queries created and stored outside of the program but within an external database system. You can work with external queries and views as you would work with any other database table. You can view or edit them in the Data View window, construct queries based on them, and create links and labels based on their records.