Generating Reports › Defining the Report Data › Using a Dataview

Using a Dataview

Frequently, the details for a report are based on one or more columns in a dataview. When a report is created based on a dataview, the report creator needs to enter the column names on the Detail Definition fill‑in screen. In most cases, you need to prefix the column name with the dataview name.

The following screen shows an example of the column names of the CUSTOMER dataview specified on the Detail fill‑in. The column names were used as field names and, by default, display as headers for the report columns. Edit patterns were assigned to the CUSTOMER.OPEN$ and CUSTOMER.YTDSALES fields.

=>
                                                                                
 IDEAL   : RPT DETAIL DEFN.      RPT CUSTRPT  (001) TEST          SYS: DOC  DISP 

         Field Name, Literal,      Sort   Break  Function Column 
         Function, or               L A   L S I  T M M A  H W    
 Command Arithmetic Expression      V /   V K N  O A I V  D ID Tab Edit Pattern 
                                    L D   L P D  T X N G  G TH   
                                                                                
 ======  =========== T O P =======  = =   = = =  = = = =  = == === =============
 000100  CUSTOMER.CUSTID            _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000200  CUSTOMER.NAME              _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000300  CUSTOMER.ADDRESS           _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000400  CUSTOMER.CITY              _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000500  CUSTOMER.STATE             _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000600  CUSTOMER.ZIP               _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 000700  CUSTOMER.OPEN$             _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ Z,ZZZ,ZZ9.99 
 000800  CUSTOMER.YTDSALES          _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ Z,ZZZ,ZZ9.99 
 000900  CUSTOMER.SLMNID            _ _   _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ __ ___ _____________
 ======  ========= B O T T O M ===  = =   = = =  = = = =  = == === =============

If the length of the data exceeds the specified edit pattern, it is truncated. Null values in fields specified with null indicators appear as question marks padded with blanks to the total field length. Truncation, padding, and justification in these situations are indicated in the following table.