reports 101

[Roland Alden]

I have a basic question about reports. It seems as if reports want to work
on one flat table view of the data and that "sections" of the report can
"group" common prefix material such that it isn't repeated. This works for
the simple case like:

<vendor><product><serial number><price>

where if you bought several different copies of the same <product> at
possibly different prices your report could look like:

Joe's Mfg
Lawnmower
sn#123 $300
sn#874 $288

etc.

or, you could rearrange the view like this <vendor><product<price><serial
number>

and have some "price groups" like

Joe's Mfg
Lawnmower
$300's
sn#123 $300
$200's
sn#874 $288

However, I have some data that imparts a level of hierarchy that doesn't map
to this. To wit, I have three tables <person>. <email> and <phone> where
both email and phone rows are related to a person based on a Guid. This
allows a person to have an arbitrary number of phone numbers (there is
another relation that types them) and email addresses. Now in a report I'd
like a section that looks like this:

Joe
phones
+1 (123) 000-0000
+1 (456) 000-0000
+1 (789) 000-0000
emails
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

But because what seems to be the "flat view" requirement of a Report I have
to make the data look like this:

Joe +1 (123) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (456) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (789) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (123) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (456) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (789) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)

Then "grouping" works to make the actual report look like this:

Joe
+1 (123) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
+1 (456) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
+1 (789) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

In a "form" it is easy to construct a hierarchy with subforms. Is it
possible to put a report inside a report? Is there a linkage mechanism like
master/child for "sub reports" ??

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

I have a basic question about reports. It seems as if reports want to
work on one flat table view of the data and that "sections" of the
report can "group" common prefix material such that it isn't
repeated. This works for the simple case like:

<vendor><product><serial number><price>

where if you bought several different copies of the same <product> at
possibly different prices your report could look like:

Joe's Mfg
Lawnmower
sn#123 $300
sn#874 $288

etc.

or, you could rearrange the view like this
<vendor><product<price><serial number>

and have some "price groups" like

Joe's Mfg
Lawnmower
$300's
sn#123 $300
$200's
sn#874 $288

However, I have some data that imparts a level of hierarchy that
doesn't map to this. To wit, I have three tables <person>. <email>
and <phone> where both email and phone rows are related to a person
based on a Guid. This allows a person to have an arbitrary number of
phone numbers (there is another relation that types them) and email
addresses. Now in a report I'd like a section that looks like this:

Joe
phones
+1 (123) 000-0000
+1 (456) 000-0000
+1 (789) 000-0000
emails
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

But because what seems to be the "flat view" requirement of a Report
I have to make the data look like this:

Joe +1 (123) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (456) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (789) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (123) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (456) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)
Joe +1 (789) 000-0000 (e-mail address removed)

Then "grouping" works to make the actual report look like this:

Joe
+1 (123) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
+1 (456) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
+1 (789) 000-0000
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

In a "form" it is easy to construct a hierarchy with subforms. Is it
possible to put a report inside a report? Is there a linkage
mechanism like master/child for "sub reports" ??

Yes. Exactly like that, in fact -- a report can have subreports, which
are represented in the report design by a subreport control. The
subreport is linked to the main report by Link Master/Child Fields, just
like a subform on a form.

 

[PC Datasheet]

To get the result you want, you need a phone type table. You then could
group by person and phone type.

 

[Roland Alden]

Ah; the subreport control. There it is!

Thank you muchly.