Query editor

The query editor is where you write and run SQL. Each tab is one editor with its own connection and database, and the results of its last run sit underneath it.

Tabs

Ctrl+T opens a new tab on the active connection, and Ctrl+W closes the current one. The database a tab runs against is the selector in the QUERY header above the editor; a tab with none chosen reads No database.

A pinned tab has no ×, and Close other tabs and Close all tabs leave it alone; Unpin it to close it. Tabs come back when the app starts again unless you turn off Restore tabs on startup in Settings. A tab can also be a .sql file on disk — see SQL files.

If a database has a colour (see Schema), its tabs carry it too.

Running SQL

Ctrl+Enter runs SQL. What it runs depends on where you are:

• With a selection, it runs exactly what's selected. A selection holding several statements runs them all.
• With just a caret, in a tab holding one statement, it runs that statement.
• With a caret, in a tab holding several, a small menu opens with the statement under the caret outlined: Run current (already selected — press Enter) or Run everything.

Every statement that's run gets its own result in the strip under the editor, so a Run everything over three SELECTs gives you three results to flick between. Results and what you can do with them are in Results grid.

With several carets and no selection, nothing runs: select what you mean, or go back to one caret.

Parameters. Write :name anywhere a value goes — WHERE id = :id, or even LIMIT :n — and a row of fields appears under the editor, one per name. Each has a chip that says what kind of value it is (text, number, NULL or raw SQL); click it to change. The run waits until every parameter has a value. Values are kept for the session only.

What asks before running

Some statements stop at a bar above the editor before they run. There are two kinds of stop.

Refused outright — nothing you press will run it:

• the connection is marked read-only and the statement writes, or isn't one Schemaic can prove only reads;
• the tab has no database and the statement needs one.

Asked first — the bar says why, and Run anyway goes ahead:

• a statement that destroys rows wholesale: DELETE or UPDATE with no WHERE, TRUNCATE, DROP TABLE, DROP DATABASE, DROP SCHEMA, CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE, and similar;
• any write at all, while Confirm before running writes is on (Settings › Query). It's on by default;
• a run that would replace a result holding edits you haven't committed yet.

Whether a connection is read-only shows at the bottom of the window as Read-only or Write mode (amber). Click it to switch. The same guard covers every other way Schemaic runs your SQL — the AI assistant, the command line, a script file — and none of them is laxer than this one.

Transactions

Each tab is in one of two modes, shown at the bottom of the window. Click it to switch.

• Auto-commit (the default) — every statement is committed as soon as it runs.
• Manual — the tab holds its own connection and a transaction stays open across runs until you end it. While one is open the footer counts the statements in it and shows Commit and Rollback. Closing the tab, or switching it back to Auto-commit, asks which you want first.

A few things the server decides, not Schemaic:

• MySQL and MariaDB commit an open transaction before running DDL such as CREATE or ALTER. Schemaic tells you when that has happened, since Rollback can no longer undo what came before.
• PostgreSQL stops a transaction at the first failed statement. The footer then reads Tx aborted — rollback to continue.
• SQLite has no Manual mode in Schemaic, so the switch isn't shown: every statement commits as it runs. Nor does a read-only SQL Server connection.

Panels beside the editor

The buttons at the top right open panels in a column beside the editor: Query history and Snippet library (see History and snippets), the AI assistant (AI assistant), Server activity, and the Terminal.

The Terminal (Ctrl+`) is a shell of your choice — pick it under Settings › Terminal. Its database button opens the connection's own command-line client (mysql, psql, sqlite3, sqlcmd) already signed in. It isn't offered on a read-only connection, since the client wouldn't be read-only.

In this section

• Writing SQL — completion, checks as you type, formatting, find and replace.
• History and snippets — find what you ran, and keep what you'll run again.
• Query plans — see how the server will run a statement.
• SQL files — open and save .sql files, and run a whole script.