Manifold Database Commander is a universal command and control console for working with almost any database. Commander allows you to see your data and relationships in the data with greater power and ease of use than ever before.

Database Commander is not just some dumb little database browser: it contains a new approach to understanding databases of spectacular sophistication and power, all tamed for your ease of use within a sensible, point-and-click interface.

Database Commander Functions:

• Browse almost any data file or database, even SQL Server!


• Find data easily and intuitively, even when you are not sure exactly what you seek.


• Transform data at will with a point and click, without any programming, even including type changes or format changes.


• Perform sophisticated analysis without having to write complex SQL queries or database programs.


• Run statistics on fields and automatically report results.


• Do any level of SQL desired, even using text files or tables from HTML pages.


• Chart fields using "group by" methods, and see what records are in the chart by simply clicking on the chart.


• Harvest data from Web sites for use in your own databases.

Seven Major Commander Innovations

1 "More Like This" - Click on record or cell and ask for "more like this" and Commander will find more like that. Commander knows what fields you are looking at as well as what the actual contents are in the database.

 An electric mix of artificial intelligence and automated "fuzzy" searching goes on behind the scenes to make life easier for you. Example: Find more records like that customer in France.

2 "Click-back" Charting™ - Database Commander creates "live" charts where the items in the chart are "handles" back into the data.

Click on a bar in a Commander bar chart to see the records that make up that bar. They'll automatically be highlighted back in the table. CTRL-click on several bars to highlight multiple bars at once. This works with other chart styles too! Example: Find all the shipments in the "Wednesday" bar in the bar chart.

3 Decision Support System - Real life database searches involve flexible criteria with multiple tradeoffs. Manifold Decision Support System makes it easy to search databases using flexible criteria, just like in real life.

This easy to use system uses point-and-click "presets" to make it easy to specify profiles such as "average", "high" and so on. It's the most advanced flexible search capability ever offered for database searching. Example: Find US Counties where Hispanic income is "high" and White income is "low".

4 Active Columns™ - Write any formula in Formula Builder and give it a name. It instantly appears in the table as a column with that name at the top and is automatically computed "on the fly" for each record. It's like a spreadsheet, but easier, and it's set up to work with databases.

Better still, the formula can use any Visual Basic scripting or ActiveX construct, such as Functions and more. Click on the thumbnail for an easy to understand example. Example: Add a "discounted price" column to the table.

5 "Click-back" Analysis Bars - Analysis bars report the results of a statistical, logical or math operation at the bottom of a table view.

Clicking on the Highlight button in an Analysis bar will instantly highlight all records that are picked out by that analysis. For example, an Analysis bar might report there are 780 records with a Quantity field greater than 30. Click on the Highlight bar and you will see each such record highlighted.

6 Transformer Toolbar - Transformer makes it easy to change data throughout an entire field at once. Example: Increase the "Unit Price" field in all records by 10%... instantly, without any programming or need to write update queries in SQL.

Transformer can copy one field to another, even transforming field types (such as numeric to text or text to numeric) "on the fly" during the copy. Over 100 operations provide a rich set of point-and-click commands to apply to text, numbers or even dates. Copy just the month or year field out of a date, for example, with a single click.

7 Selection Combinations - Selection is at once the easiest and among the most subtle new ideas in Database Commander. The Selection is a table view pane that opens up underneath the main table view. Records that are highlighted in the main view can be placed in the Selection as well using Replace, Add, Subtract and other combinations.

Because records can be highlighted in sophisticated ways in the main view, this means that the Selection can be a highly refined and sophisticated choice of records from the database. Commander can then transform only those records in the selection, analyze only them, chart them, or even save the records in the Selection to a new data file.

Highlights:

• Browse any database to see the structure, properties and content of database tables, relations, queries, fields and records.


• Find data using automatic "more like this" searches that find more records like the one highlighted.


• Zero In on desired records using "fuzzy logic" searches that simultaneously incorporate many flexible criteria.


• Analyze any field in any table or any selection using point-and-click statistics and logic.


• Change database data using a global transformer that includes over 100 string, date, currency, numeric and Boolean operations.


• Copy and Paste database tables, relations, queries and records between Commander sessions or other applications.


• Transform database field types and data using math, string commands or logic without update queries.


• Search and Replace within database fields.


• Transmute databases from nearly any format into Microsoft .mdb format.


• Search using SQL in simple one-line toolbars or full "expert" SQL.


• "Drag and Drop" SQL Query Builder for easy, syntactically correct SQL queries: Templates too!


• Select records using a variety of visual, SQL, Boolean or analytic combinations to create an exact Selection desired.


• Display Active Columns™ that automatically report the results of Decision Support System or ActiveX formulas for any record. Active Columns are like adding a column to a database table that automatically performs any logic desired.


• "Drag and Drop" Formula Builder to create Visual Basic scripting / ActiveX formulas for use within Active Columns.


• Chart databases using records or automatic grouping for "drill up" functionality.


• Connect to Microsoft OLAP facilities for immediate views of OLAP cubes (optional Manifold OLAP Connection required.)


• Display data in 3D tables, charts and surfaces using spectacular 3D rendered graphics (optional Manifold 3D View Studio required).


• Calculate killer statistics without complex statistics packages. Just point and click!


• Harvest data from web pages for use in your own databases.