How does Seagate Crystal Reports use SQL?

When you connect to an SQL database, Seagate Crystal Reports acts as an SQL client application, connecting to your SQL server through your network.

When you design a report that accesses SQL data, Seagate Crystal Reports builds an SQL query. This query can be edited if you know SQL and you feel that the query can be further optimized. If you choose Show SQL Query from the Database menu, the Show SQL Query dialog box displays the SQL query that Seagate Crystal Reports has built.

This SQL query is a representation of the SQL statement that Seagate Crystal Reports sends to the SQL server. By interpreting as much as possible from the report design into an SQL query, Seagate Crystal Reports can off-load much of the report processing onto the server machine. Rather than having to sift through an entire database to find the data you requested, Seagate Crystal Reports lets the server do the sifting and gets back a much smaller set of data, thus reducing the time and resources your workstation must use in order to finish the report.