Quickstart: Use Azure Data Studio to connect and query SQL Server

This quickstart shows how to use Azure Data Studio to connect to SQL Server, and then use Transact-SQL (T-SQL) statements to create the TutorialDB used in Azure Data Studio tutorials.

Prerequisites

To complete this quickstart, you need Azure Data Studio, and access to a SQL Server instance.

If you don't have access to a SQL Server, select your platform from the following links (make sure you remember your SQL Login and Password!):

Connect to a SQL Server

  1. Start Azure Data Studio.

  2. The first time you run Azure Data Studio the Welcome page should open. If you don't see the Welcome page, select Help > Welcome. Select New Connection to open the Connection pane:

    Screenshot showing the New Connection icon.

  3. This article uses SQL Login, but Windows Authentication is supported. Fill in the fields as follows:

    • Server Name: Enter server name here. For example, localhost.
    • Authentication Type: SQL Login
    • User name: User name for the SQL Server
    • Password: Password for the SQL Server
    • Database Name: <Default>
    • Server Group: <Default>

    Screenshot showing the New Connection screen.

Create a database

The following steps create a database named TutorialDB:

  1. Right-click on your server, localhost, and select New Query.

  2. Paste the following snippet into the query window: and then select Run.

    USE master;
    GO
    
    IF NOT EXISTS (
          SELECT name
          FROM sys.databases
          WHERE name = N'TutorialDB'
          )
       CREATE DATABASE [TutorialDB];
    GO
    
    IF SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') > '12'
       ALTER DATABASE [TutorialDB] SET QUERY_STORE = ON;
    GO
    

    After the query completes, the new TutorialDB appears in the list of databases. If you don't see it, right-click the Databases node and select Refresh.

    Screenshot showing how to create database.

Create a table

The query editor is still connected to the master database, but we want to create a table in the TutorialDB database.

  1. Change the connection context to TutorialDB:

    Screenshot showing how to change context.

  2. Replace the text in the query window with the following snippet and select Run:

    -- Create a new table called 'Customers' in schema 'dbo'
    -- Drop the table if it already exists
    IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.Customers', 'U') IS NOT NULL
       DROP TABLE dbo.Customers;
    GO
    
    -- Create the table in the specified schema
    CREATE TABLE dbo.Customers (
       CustomerId INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, -- primary key column
       [Name] NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
       [Location] NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
       [Email] NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
       );
    GO
    

After the query completes, the new Customers table appears in the list of tables. You might need to right-click the TutorialDB > Tables node and select Refresh.

Insert rows

Replace the text in the query window with the following snippet and select Run:

-- Insert rows into table 'Customers'
INSERT INTO dbo.Customers (
   [CustomerId],
   [Name],
   [Location],
   [Email]
)
VALUES
   (1, N'Orlando', N'Australia', N''),
   (2, N'Keith', N'India', N'keith0@adventure-works.com'),
   (3, N'Donna', N'Germany', N'donna0@adventure-works.com'),
   (4, N'Janet', N'United States', N'janet1@adventure-works.com')
GO

View the data returned by a query

Replace the text in the query window with the following snippet and select Run:

-- Select rows from table 'Customers'
SELECT * FROM dbo.Customers;

Screenshot showing the results from the SELECT query.