Database Diagrams

You can create, edit, or delete database objects while you are directly connected to the database in which those database objects are stored.

You interact with the server database using database diagrams. Database diagrams can be accessed through SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Database diagrams graphically represent the tables in your database. The database diagrams display the columns contained within the tables, relationships between the tables, and indexes and constraints attached to the tables. After a connection to a database has been established, you can use database diagrams to:

• View the tables and their relationships in a database.
• Perform complex operations to alter the physical structure of a database.

  You can make changes in the database diagram without affecting the underlying database. When you use a database diagram to modify a database object, the modifications you make are not saved in the database until you save the table or database diagram. Thus, you can experiment with “what if” scenarios on a database’s design without permanently affecting its existing design or data.

• Save the changes to selected tables or the database diagram and have the changes modify the server database.

  If you don’t want to save changes you’ve made to selected tables or the database diagram, you can discard the changes.

• Save a change script that contains the Transact-SQL code generated by your changes to the database diagram. Saving a change script rather than saving your changes to the database enables you to edit the change script in a text editor and then apply the modified script to the database.

  You can also choose to create a change script automatically each time you save your database diagram or any database object in your diagram. This provides you with a record of the changes you have made to the database.

  You control the timing, type, and extent of the changes to your database by choosing how changes to the database diagram affect the server database.

See Also