vBulletin Manual - Execute SQL Query

This section allows you to run arbitrary queries on your database. This is often helpful for making many changes quickly or troubleshooting. It is accessible via Import & Maintenance > Execute SQL Query.

Warning:

The ability to execute an arbitrary query is a powerful one. It can ease administration at times, but it has the potential of destroying your database. Be sure the query you are running is exactly what you want.

Upon entering this section, you will see a page like this:

Note:

Your user ID must be in the $canrunqueries variable in config.php to access this page. See Editing the vBulletin Configuration File.

Automatic Query – these are predefined queries to accomplish commonly-used mass updates. These include setting specific options to a certain value for all users.
Manual Query – if you wish to run your own query, you may enter it here. Ensure that no Automatic Query is selected. Additionally, you may only run one query at a time.
Results to Show Per Page – if you have specified a query that returns results (generally SELECT queries), this is the number of results to display per page.

If your query returns a result set, you will see a page similar to this after running it:

At the top, you will see the query you ran. At the bottom, you will see the results of your query. Each column in the table is a column of data being returned by the query. Thus, in this example, avatarid, title, minimumposts, avatarpath, imagecategoryid, and displayorder are columns in the vb3_avatar table.