Product Highlights

Designed for Visual Basic and Visual Studio.Net

Total SQL Statistics is designed specifically for Visual Basic and Visual Studio.Net developers using and SQL Server data.

A wide range of statistical functions is available to analyze data stored in SQL Server. The data can be accessed in tables, views, stored procedures, and user defined functions that return a table. The results are created in tables so you have maximum flexibility in working with these data sets.

Analysis scenarios are designed by running our standalone Scenario Designer program. Once you assign the parameters of the scenario with this program, you can run it from your VB program with a simple DLL call into a distributable run-time library. Only the structure of the scenario is saved, not the data, so analysis is always performed on the current data.

Total SQL Statistics is .Net Ready!

Total SQL Statistics supports Microsoft�s .Net platform. You can create Visual Studio.Net projects and include a reference to the Total SQL Statistics Runtime DLL just as you would in Visual Basic 6. Additionally, Total SQL Statistics can generate Visual Basic.Net code that runs any scenario you have defined.

Scenario Designer

The Total SQL Statistics Scenario Designer is where you create analysis scenarios. Scenarios contain information on the data to analyze and the statistical options to perform. A Wizard-like interface guides you through the process with no programming required. This allows you to perform powerful analysis with point-and-click ease. Your selections are automatically saved as "scenarios" which can be run interactively or invoked programmatically.

Total SQL Statistics adds three small tables in your SQL Server database to store these scenarios.

Programmatic Interface

Total SQL Statistics includes a programmatic interface for programmers who want to incorporate statistical functions directly into their applications. A DLL is all that is needed to add Total SQL Statistics to your applications -- simply reference our DLL with the scenario you designed in the Scenario Designer, and the results are generated. You can specify all login information and direct output tables to a different database. While the analysis is running, events are available to let you know its progress. The analysis runs in the background, so your users won�t even know how you generate the complex analysis!

How Total SQL Statistics Works

Before using Total SQL Statistics programmatically, you should understand how it works, and where it keeps its scenario settings.

Total SQL Statistics is written entirely in Visual Basic. It consists of a design-time component (the Scenario Designer) and a redistributable run-time component (the calculation engine). When you create and test an analysis scenario with the Scenario Designer, you are working with the same calculation engine that is distributed with your application.

The Scenario Designer is the interactive component (FMSSTAT.EXE) used to set up the scenarios. This component may not be distributed.

The calculation engine has no user interface. It is used purely to perform calculations and work with the tables created by the Scenario Designer. It exposes several public functions that you can call from your VB application to generate the analyses dynamically at run-time (RunScenario Function, Probability Function, and Inverse Probability Function).

Programmatic Overview

This section describes the programmatic interface of Total SQL Statistics. It assumes that you are familiar with using Visual Basic or Visual Studio.Net and invoking functions.

Prior to using the programmatic interface, you must create the scenarios with the Scenario Designer. Run your scenario in the Scenario Designer before adding it to your program to verify that it works.

Total SQL Statistics includes three functions to let you add its features inside your application:

• RunScenario
  Run any saved scenario
• Probability
  Calculate probability as used in the Probability Calculator
• Probinverse
  Calculate inverse probability as used in the Probability Calculator

Important Concepts

There are several important concepts you should be familiar with before installing and using Total SQL Statistics:

• The analysis is performed on the tables, views, stored procedures, and user defined functions in your SQL Server database. Total SQL Statistics supports stored procedures and user defined functions that return data -- specifically stored procedures that return only one recordset, and table-type user-defined functions.
• Three tables are used to store scenario settings. These tables are added to every database that you open with the Scenario Designer. The information remains with your database even if you rename the database, move it, or re-install Total SQL Statistics.
• Your analysis selections (scenarios) are automatically saved for reuse. Only the settings are saved, not the data, so the latest data is always used to recalculate the results when you run a scenario.
• Your data is never modified. Total SQL Statistics only reads and sorts your data. When it needs to process intermediate data, it is created in separate temporary tables that are deleted after the analysis is completed.
• Multiple fields can be analyzed at one time.
• Groups of records can be analyzed simultaneously, similar to how the "Group By" clause works in T-SQL.
• Records can be weighted by assigning a weighting field to designate the number of times the record is counted.
• Null values are automatically ignored. You can also specify specific values or ranges of values to ignore.
• The results are placed in one or two permanent tables in the current database or another database you specify.

System Requirements: