Note that these are not only the fields that you will use for filtering information, but all the fields you see when using the query. The first step in creating the query is to select the fields that you want to display in the Query.

Only when the Queries pane is blank should you click Use Wizard to Create Query in the Tasks pane, and open the Query Wizard. If that is not what you want, right-click the existing query and choose Create as View from the Context menu to rename the existing query and have it moved to the Tables page. If one already exists, it is highlighted in the Queries pane, and any new queries will be sub-queries of the existing one. Note that, for some reason, Base allows only one query to be listed at a time. The query page is organized like the other pages in Base, with a list of available tasks in the top middle, and a list of existing items in the bottom middle. To create a query, open a database and click Queries in the left hand pane. For most people or purposes, there is no reason not to use the wizard. However, like the Function Wizard in Calc or the introductory wizard in Impress, Base's Query Wizard has the advantage of helping you organize your thoughts while requiring no previous knowledge. If you are a database expert, you might prefer Design or SQL View. In fact, Base offers you three different ways to write a query: in a wizard, which guides you through the process in Design View, which provides a minimal amount of guidance, and in SQL View, which provides no guidance at all. You can create a query in any database set up in Base.

When saved in Base for long term use, a query becomes a view. Of course, in the hands of an expert, queries can be far more precise - and complicated - than a filter, but, if you are using Base, then the analogy generally holds true, although queries are slightly more complicated than filters to set up. Either can be an efficient way of finding the information you want, especially when you're dealing with thousands of records. Just as a filter can limit and reorganize the information displayed in a spreadsheet, so a query limits and reorganizes the information in a database. Queries are the database equivalent of filters in a spreadsheet.

A table as a field in openoffice base