Advanced Query Tool offers the following main features.
•  simple interface 
• can build and run queries 
• has comprehensive queries on system objects 
• AQT has a number of tools useful to the Developer and DBA 
• AQT is a  proven product 

In developing this product, a large amount of effort has been invested into providing a simple, fast and easy-to use interface.  If you use databases frequently during your working day, you will find that AQT will save you a lot of time. Many users find the product worthwhile just for this.
 

allows you to very quickly see all the tables in your system (both definition and content). 

queries(*) against the tables can be easily developed and saved.

The interface has been designed to allow you to do these things in minimal amount of time; you will be able to do this with AQT with less clicking, typing and hunting through menus than with any other product we have seen. Take a look at the Guided Tour to see how AQT works.

(*) Note: the term queryis used rather loosely to refer to any SQL statement. AQT provides manyfeatures for updating your tables too. 

• allows you to run any SQL statement against your database. 
• has a query builder for helping you build Select statements. It can also also build update, delete and insert statements. 
• queries can contain substitutional parameters (the values of these are prompted for when the query is run).
• queries can be saved for later use.
• results from a query can be sent to a file (in a variety of formats).
• a set of data can be copied to the clipboard for pasting into products such as Excel.
• within a table you can easily display the distinct values of a column. This is a powerful way of quickly gaining an understanding of the data held in a table.
• long-running queries or updates can be cancelled, or be set to time-out. 
• updates can run under Transactional Control – the changes are not made until Commit (or Rollback) is selected.
• has a "Safe Update Mode" which warns you if you update more rows than a pre-set limit. This is useful for preventing inadverted mass-updates or deletes against tables.

For some databases(*) AQT reads the system tables (a.k.a catalog , dictionary) to provide you with comprehensive information about the objects in your system (not just tables/views but also triggers, procedures, indexes, tablespaces, security rights etc). This provides the user with a large amount of information useful for understanding and managing the database.  Typically, 50 system queries are supplied. AQT provides you with more information about your system than the vendor tools (DB2 Control Center, Oracle Navigator, Sybase Central etc).

See table info and for an example of how this information is presented.

(*) So far this has been setup for Oracle (V7 and V8), DB2/UDB, DB2/390, Sybase Anywhere, Sybase Enterprise, Informix, and MS SQL Server (versions 6.5 and 7.0). Other databases will be added in the future (AQT still works with databases other than these - just the system queries are not available).

The system queries are controlled entirely by config files: by changing these config files you can customize the system queries to the requirements of your site. 

AQT was developedby a DBA for one purpose - to make his life easier and to simplify many common DBA tasks. People who spend their day dealing with databases would find many of the features listed below extremely useful; most are unique to AQT or only available in expensive products. 

In addition to the System Queries feature, AQT: 
 

has a compare facility for quickly comparing the definition of a table between databases. If your tables are defined in a development database as well as a production one, you can very quickly see whether the tables have the same definition or not. This is fast; you can compare (say) 50 tables in a couple of minutes.

has a facility for simplifying the management of the security of your tables and views. Privileges on a group of tables can be quickly granted to (or revoked from) a user. Privileges can be copied from one user to another. All these with just a few clicks.

can show view definition in formatted / interpreted mode. This is a feature which interprets the view SQL and matches the view-columns with the source of the columns. If you use views a lot, you will find this extremely useful, if not down-right enlightening.

can run multiple SQL statements.This can be used for running a script file containing a number of SQL statements. Options to pause / amend / retry makes AQT one of the best ways of running a large SQL script. The script file can contain hundreds or even thousands of SQL statements. You can even start/restart at a particular line in thefile.

DDL for your tables and views can be generated. This provides a quick way of copying table or view definitions between systems.

Has a facility for generating text which contains table or column names. This can be used for generating program source, SQL statements or table / column lists for reports.

Advanced Query Tool has been extensively proven on the road. It was developed over a 3 year period by a Database Administrator frustrated with the inadequacies of existing tools. It has been used on a daily basis against large, varied and "real" databases.  
 

it can run against large databases and large tables, including mainframes. AQT runs happily and fast against databases with thousands of tables.

It can handle many data types and other situations which normal ODBC-based systems have trouble with:

tables with CLOB or BLOB columns can be displayed 

binary columns can be displayed in either ascii or hex mode.

it has facilities for handling the displaying and updating large columns (hundreds of bytes long). 

it has work-arounds for dealing with the many bugs / peculiarities of ODBC drivers we have come across while developing and using this system. 

AQT works.