Creating reports

There are two approaches to creating reports.

It is easy to create custom style sheets for Layout Table Reports.

Custom stylesheets can be created for Layout Table Reports.

Methods for creating sub-reports or linking other reports into a report.

Linked Reports are Layout Table reports embedded into other reports, and linked with the host report on some field. Linked Reports are similar to Subreports, but more flexible — and, in fact, similar in functionality to Subreports in some other products. Using linked reports allows you to create ledger reports, among other useful report patterns that were not previously possible. In a ledger report, the Debit and Credit tables are both linked to the account table on the Account ID field, and it is possible to compute a balance on the account. Structurally, this pattern is the same as for a customer statement report that displays orders and payments.

Alpha Anywhere now has two styles of reports, the traditional free form banded report, and a new layout table banded report. For web use, most people will want to use the new layout table report with HTML output.

Creating sub-reports, filtering sub-report records, sub-report filter expressions, and setting the subgroup parameter for a sub-report.

Reports, Letters, and Labels are Alpha Anywhere layouts for data output. Learn how to create reports in this guide.

You can create calculated fields for individual report layouts to display calculations. Unlike calculated fields created for a table or set, a report's calculated fields are only available to that report, and not to other layouts. Calculated fields can perform calculation using data from a single record. You can also perform summary calculations, such as totals and averages, using data from multiple records. Calculated fields can also display simple calculations, such calculating today's date or the current page number. The diagram below shows examples of each of these uses.