Introduction › Reporting Facility Features

Reporting Facility Features

A part of CA Datacom/DB, the Reporting Facility operates as a batch job under the control of either a z/OS or z/VSE operating system. The free-form Reporting Facility language eliminates the need to learn a complex computer language and the requirements of entering words in a specific column. Designed for end-user efficiency, the English-like commands allow for efficient execution of reporting tasks.

In addition to generating reports, the Reporting Facility has the ability to create output files and can be used as a file conversion tool. Reporting Facility features include the following:

• Input to the Reporting Facility requires no forms. The commands are easy to use, yet the system is compatible with other high-level computer languages such as COBOL and PL/I.
• The system handles all data manipulation, sorting, and report cosmetics without programmer intervention.
• You establish the contents of the report and the Reporting Facility does the rest.
• You can override the Reporting Facility automatic formatting to customize a report.
• You can print fields defined as SQL TIMESTAMP using the Timestamp DEF statement.
• The Reporting Facility supplies full logic capability for selectively retrieving records and printing data.
• The Reporting Facility provides full arithmetic computation capability and data movement and alignment.
• The system handles all report headings, dating, and page numbering automatically.
• The system provides the ability to access and relate multiple input files in a run.
• By coding a single program, up to 63 individual reports can be generated in a single pass of the input data.
• The Reporting Facility provides a library, with full maintenance capabilities, for storage of frequently used input statements.
• You can direct output to a DISK file instead of generating a report.
• The Reporting Facility executes at I/O speed.
• The Reporting Facility is fully integrated into the complete CA Datacom product line and can accept input from CA Datacom/DB, CA Datacom Datadictionary, or CA Dataquery. As part of the CA Datacom environment, the system uses the power of CA Datacom/DB design to provide either random or sequential processing of data.

In your Reporting Facility program, you can specify the content and characteristics of a report, the operations you want to take place on the data, and which data you want represented in the report. There are numerous commands available that allow you to tailor a report to your particular needs. The following commands are common to most Reporting Facility programs:

USER

Identifies the heading to be used on all pages

FILE

Defines the input file

DEFINE

Defines the input record fields

REPORT

Specifies each report within a run

SELECT

Specifies which records you wish to select for the report

PRINT

Specifies the format of the detail lines

END

Ends the Reporting Facility program

The Reporting Facility provides integration with both CA and non-CA software, and is therefore useful in the Application Development Center and the Information Center. The Reporting Facility is flexible and not limited to CA Datacom/DB tables for input data. It can access data from many sources, including IMS-DL/I databases, VSAM files, or standard sequential files. It can also utilize user-defined access methods.