The shortest way from an installed product to an answer runs over the [[Invantive Query Tool/Sample Database|sample database]], which needs no credentials and no network. The steps below take about a minute and touch nothing outside the workstation. ## Connect Start the product, choose a database holding a data container of the provider `Dummy` and connect; see [[Invantive Query Tool/Log on|Log on]]. The connection button in the ribbon then names the database as `<group>\<database>`. ## Ask Something Type one statement into the document and press "Execute": ```sql select * from Projects@dummy ``` The rows appear in "Results", the status bar states how many were returned and how long it took, and the statement is added to "History". ## Read the Answer The grid is a working surface rather than a picture: dragging a column heading onto the bar above it groups by that column, the funnel in a heading filters, the sigma sums, and the search field at the right-hand end of the toolbar goes to a value. What the grid shows is what an export writes; see [[Invantive Query Tool/Results|Results]] and [[Invantive Query Tool/Exporting Results|Exporting Results]]. ## Narrow It Down A statement is written against the columns the table has, and the [[Invantive Query Tool/Available Objects|Available Objects]] tree and [[Invantive Query Tool/Describe Object|Describe Object]] are where those are read: ```sql select pjt_code , pjt_naam , pjt_gemeente from Projects@dummy pjt where pjt_gemeente = 'Boston' order by pjt_code ``` Six of the eleven projects are in Boston, and the grid holds those six: ![[20260904-qt-first-query.png]] Invantive UniversalSQL is the dialect used against every platform; its grammar, its functions and its differences from the SQL of one platform are documented under [[Invantive UniversalSQL/Invantive UniversalSQL|Invantive UniversalSQL]]. ## Then What - Several statements in one document, separated by semicolons, run one after another with "Execute All"; see [[Invantive Query Tool/Executing Statements|Executing Statements]]. - A statement which takes long enough to wonder about is watched in the [[Invantive Query Tool/Progress|Progress]] panel, and the calls it makes are listed in the [[Invantive Query Tool/Connection Monitor|Connection Monitor]]. - A statement worth keeping is saved as a `.sql` file from the [[Invantive Query Tool/File Menu|File menu]] and run unattended by [[Invantive Data Hub/Invantive Data Hub|Invantive Data Hub]].