Re: ACCESS, NT SQL server and Sybase SQL Server

In article <2kbc61$nr_at_nntp2.Stanford.EDU> weng_at_leland.Stanford.EDU (Chi-Cheong Weng) writes:
>Is NT SQL server and Microsoft SQL server the same thing ?
>

Yes.

SQL Server is the name of the relational database engine. Sybase (the company) is the creator of the original SQL Server. Microsoft has the source-code rights (or something similar) which they used to create SQL Server for NT.

Note that there are versions of SQL Server on many platforms (Unix, OS/2, Novell, Windows NT, etc) but they are (supposedly) compatible.

Sybase SQL Server runs on Unix, Vax, HP/UX, Aix, Novell, etc... Microsoft SQL Server runs on Windows NT and (I think) OS/2.

>If not , what is the difference ?
>
>I was told that if we use ACCESS to do query against SQL Server ( NT , Sybase
>or Oracle ), the the entire table is downloaded to the pc and the
>query is executed locally! I couldn't believe it.
>
>Can any people claim this ?

Yes, this is definitely possible, but does not always happen.

In Access, if you attach to a SQL Server table (or an Oracle table, etc.) then the ODBC driver for Access will decide whether or not to execute the query on the server itself, or if it needs to copy the whole table onto the client and execute it there.

I think the main criteria is whether or not you are using Access functions vs SQL Server functions on the data. If you use any Access functions in the "where" clause, for example, I believe that it will copy the whole table into local storage before processing the where clause. If you use only SQL Server functions then it will attempt to execute the query on the server, which is preferable. There are some other criteria, but I don't know what the "hard and fast" rules are. You will probably need to experiment a bit.

If you use lots of data-aware controls in Access, I think you will tend to run into more problems of this nature, unless you keep the queries pretty simple.

Hope that helps.

--Brad

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| Bradley Myers         |  bmyers_at_fmrco.com  |  "Why me?"   "Why not?" |
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