When you connect to an SQL database,
Crystal Reports acts as an SQL client application, connecting
to your SQL server through your network.
When you design a report that accesses SQL
data,
Crystal Reports builds an SQL query. This query can be seen by
choosing Show SQL Query from the
Crystal Reports menu.
This SQL query is a representation of the
SQL statement that
Crystal Reports sends to the SQL server. By interpreting as
much as possible from the report design into an SQL query,
Crystal Reports can off-load much of the report processing
onto the server machine. Rather than having to sift through an entire database
to find the data you requested,
Crystal Reports lets the server do the sifting and gets back a
much smaller set of data, thus reducing the time and resources your workstation
must use in order to finish the report.