Data access is the process of entering a database to store or retrieve data. Data Access Tools are end user oriented tools that allow users to build structured query language (SQL) queries by pointing and clicking on the list of table and fields in the data warehouse.

Thorough computing history, there have been different methods and languages already that were used for data access and these varied depending on the type of data warehouse. The data warehouse contains a rich repository of data pertaining to organizational business rules, policies, events and histories and these warehouses store data in different and incompatible formats so several data access tools have been developed to overcome problems of data incompatibilities.

Recent advancement in information technology has brought about new and innovative software applications that have more standardized languages, format, and methods to serve as interface among different data formats. Some of these more popular standards include SQL, OBDC, ADO.NET, JDBC, XML, XPath, XQuery and Web Services.

Structured Query Language is a computer language used in Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) for retrieving and management of data. Although SQL has been developed to be a declarative query and data manipulation language, several vendors have created SQL DBMS and added their own procedural constructs, data types and other propriety features. SQL is standardized both by ANSI and ISO.

ODBC, which stands for Open Database Connectivity is a standard software application programming interface used for data management systems. Different computer languages can access data into different types and implementation of RDBMS using the ODBC.

JDBC which stands for Java Database Connectivity can be to some degree the same as ODBC but is used for the Java programming language.

ADO.NET is a Microsoft proprietary software component for accessing data and data services. This is part of the Microsoft .Net framework. ADO stands for ActiveX Data Object.

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language is primarily a general purpose markup language. It is used to tag data so that sharing of structure data can be done through disparate systems across the internet or any network. This makes data of any format portable among different computer systems making XML one of the most used technologies in data warehousing.

XML data can be queried using XQuery. This is almost semantically the same with SQL. XML Path Language is used to address portion of an XML document or other computing values like strings, Booleans, number and others based on any XML document.

Web services are software components that make possible the interoperability of machine to machine interaction over the internet. They are also commonly known as Web API that are accessed over the internet and execute on another remote system.

Many software vendors develop applications that have graphical user interface (GUI) tools so that even non programmers or non database administrators can build queries by just clicking the mouse. This GUI data access tools give users access via data access designer and data access viewer. With the data access designer, an end user can create complex databases even if he does not have intensive background.

Templates that are complete with design framework and sample data are available readymade. With the data access viewer, the user can run and enter data and make changes and modifications and graphically see what see the commands without having to care the complex process happening in the background.

Data access tools makes the tasks of database administrators a lot easier especially if the database being management is a large data warehouse. Having a graphical interface for data access gives the administrator a clearer status of the database because most programmatic query languages may look cryptic on the command line interface.