I use SQL a lot. Not only embedded within my RPG programs but also interactively to check and maintain data. The IBM i does provide a green-screen interactive SQL session but as soon as you start writing anything more than simple select and update statements, this becomes very cumbersome. The System i Navigator also provides an SQL tool which, while an improvement on the green screen session is still pretty basic.

It is possible, of course, to write your SQL in a source code editor like Notepad++ and then paste it into the System i Navigator SQL tool. Obviously, though, this is not ideal so I was rather pleased to discover that there is a better approach.

I heard about SQuirreL SQL earlier this week and, having finally gotten around to installing it, I have to say that I am very impressed. SQuirreL SQL is open-source SQL client that uses JDBC to connect to pretty much any database you can think of. It’s fast and feature-packed and really is a boon to developers.

In order to get it up and running, you need to first download JTOpen, the open-source version of the IBM Toolbox for Java, and then download and install the SQuirreL Client itself. MC Press Online has a useful walk-through of the steps you need to take to get this all working.

Once you’re in, though, it really is a lovely tool. I am not going to attempt to write a review on the basis of three hours of tinkering, but one thing that has struck me is that the keyboard shortcuts are well worth learning.

Beyond that, I have yet to encounter a task that I can’t complete faster with SQuirreL than with my previous approach.