Report (computer science)
A report (or report ) is in the computer science a by a computer program produced, uniformly structured representation of contents of data files . They can be on paper or in any electronic form (screen content, PDF ...).
Reports, often also called “ lists ” (for other synonyms, see there), can consist of subsets of stored data (example: private customers only) (see selection ). You can only process / display certain data fields (with or without address details, see projection ), show connections between the data (customer> place of residence> state), summarize and / or sort the data into groups with appropriate headings and summary information .
In principle, reports can be programmed with any type of computer program as its functionality. Report generators are available as specialized tools for generating reports , which are provided by IT manufacturers, possibly proprietary . They are often part of a higher-level software development environment that also contains programming languages and a DBMS .
Reports can be one-dimensional - example customer list - or multi-dimensional - example customer list with the orders listed for each customer. Certain design techniques are available for this in the report software , for example subreports .
With an appropriate design, a report can also be designed in such a way that forms are generated, for example with product or customer master data.
Delimitation: The term report is often used as a synonym for log files that record system-related events and / or commands and, if necessary, save them for a limited period of time. However, these are not "reports" in the sense discussed here.
structure
The information presented in a report can be differentiated according to different line types as required. These are report header, page header, group header, detail area, group footer, page footer, report footer; other names are possible. For more details see article list .
Flexibility in design
If the report software offers the appropriate options - and these were also used by the programmer when creating them - the design of reports can be modified in many details and thus adapted to individual requirements / wishes during the reporting period. Examples:
- Show / hide different line types - e.g. B. of total lines, hierarchical groups or detail areas. This means that a report can e.g. B. show only the group header_customer (customer data), but optionally hide subordinate data (such as orders) and z. B. only show their sums.
- Consider certain runtime parameters for list creation, e.g. B. the invoice date and / or the invoice amount from which an overdue payment is shown. Or: only print customers of branch X, alternatively all of them.
- ... (and many other possibilities)
The instructions programmed for the report must be used to implement such modifications, e.g. B. to access the contents of screen pages for calling up the report or to call up parameter inputs in other ways, and accordingly activate or deactivate the display of the respective parts / objects of the report.