How to: Change the View of a Database's Contents

Server Explorer can show the contents of a database (tables, views, stored procedures, and other objects) in one of three ways.

Note

This feature is not available for some database types.

Note

In Visual Studio 2013, you can connect to a SQL Server database from either SQL Server Object Explorer or the Data Connections node in Server Explorer. SQL Server Object Explorer provides a view that is like SQL Server Management Studio. To open this explorer from the menu bar, choose View, SQL Server Object Explorer. For more information, see Connected Database Development.

Server view

Description

Default

Shows the database objects organized by type, with no hierarchy.

Object Type

Displays a hierarchy of objects, starting with the primary type and further splitting by additional types.

Schema

Displays a hierarchy of schemas (namespaces), then object types. For more information about schemas, see "User-Schema Separation (SQL Server)" on the Microsoft Web site.

To change the view of database objects

  1. In Server Explorer, right-click an existing data connection and choose Change View on the shortcut menu.

  2. Choose Default, Object Type, or Schema.

    Server Explorer shows the database objects according to the view you selected.

See Also

Concepts

Database Connections and Database References

Other Resources

Understanding Visual Database Tools

Database Connections

Overview of Visual Database Tools