Working with Queries

  • Article

A query is a specific set of criteria that you use to extract information from the SMS site database. SMS queries store the criteria for sets of database objects that you want to find. A query searches the SMS site database for objects that match the query's criteria. Other SMS features, including Reporting, Collections, and Status Message Queries, use queries against objects within the SMS site database. You can also create standalone named queries, which are stored in the SMS site database, and can be run from within the SMS Administrator console. The results that are returned by a named query appear in the details pane of the SMS Administrator console.

Queries can return information about most types of SMS objects, including sites, advertisements, packages, and named queries themselves. Queries are most commonly used to extract information related to users, user groups, discovered resources, and inventory data.

This section provides an overview of the principles of SMS queries and lists some of the ways you use queries as you work with SMS. There are four main topics in this section:

  • Understanding SMS Database Classes

  • Understanding SMS Queries

  • Creating and Managing SMS Queries

  • Creating and Editing Query Statements

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