It makes it hard to follow and that is why I keep referencing it with different names.Īt this point, I will show you some of the basic items found within Query Designer and how to use them. On a side note, why is it called Design Query in Editor… on the menu, but the name changes to Query Designer within the window header and then it is called Graphical Query Designer within the online docs? I have no idea why, but I personally dislike it when something like this has multiple names. In the canvas area, right-click and then select Design Query in Editor… (alternatively you can type Ctrl-Shift-Q) and Query Designer opens. Now that I know that this feature is called Graphical Query Designer in SSDT, I can find it within SSMS. Here are two articles that I found online: Graphical Query Designer and Graphical Query Designer User Interface. The window above is called Graphical Query Designer, so I searched for that in the online docs. I took the two previous screenshots from SSDT, but remember I was asked whether or not SSMS had something similar. Query Designer cannot teach you style or format guidelines, nor will it employ best practices when it comes to using alias names.

I think this is a good way to learn how to write a query and how each option or setting affects a query, but be mindful that this will NOT teach you how to write queries. Once I select the column it is added automatically to the query below (see the purple arrows). In the above screenshot I do not have a comment column, but I want to add one. You might not notice this at first, but as you change items within Query Designer the query is automatically updated. I’ll demonstrate Query Designer in this 2-min. It allows you to see what’s being created and it also lets you change options or settings. Query Designer is a great way to visualize query designs as you build the query. I told him I would get back to him about it and he suggested that this would make a good blog post topic.

I must admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the Query Designer interface within SSDT, so I wasn’t sure where it was in SSMS. I was surprised when one of the first questions that I was asked was, “Where in SSMS is the Query Designer window?” I wasn’t too sure what that meant, so I asked him to show me. I began by recommending that reports should be created in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and then the finished SQL Server query should be copied over to SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). The other day I was showing a ConfigMgr Administrator how to write a query and also how to create drill-throughs from within his reports.

Sql management studio