Utility Software II lab 4 Jacek Wiślicki, jacenty@kis.p.lodz.pl original material by Hubert Kołodziejski

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1 MS ACCESS - REPORTS Reports are meant for data presentation and viewing, mainly printing. Their main advantage is flexibility of data formatting and supplying it with additional information such as summaries, comparisons and graphics. They do not allow data edition. In order to view/edit reports at least one printer must be configured in your system. Types of reports There are two basic schema of reports: column form data of a single record is organized in a column, each field has its label. A very common practice is to place each record on a separate page, this form is usually used for managing large amounts of data: table form data from a record is placed in a single row and the labels are placed in the page header. Such a report is used for purpose of data comparison, its disadvantage is that the number of fields presented has to be limited. In real life, the reports very often are a mixture of the above, depending on their purpose and destination. Report building In order to create a report, switch to the Reports category in the object manager window: page 1 of 5

In order to view/edit reports at least one printer must be configured in your system.

2 Start the designer: A report is divided in three sections: page header, details, page footer. After selecting View Header/footer menu additional options are available a report header and a report footer: Page header contains formants placed in the upper part of the page, e.g. labels used in the tableform reports. Page footer stands for a section printed at the end of each page, usually contains information about the report generation date, page number or some report identifier. Report header is a section printed above the page header, e.g. the report title. Report footer is printed at the end of the last page, above the page footer. It contains summaries, remarks, final comments, etc. Details section is a report body, its formants are meant for data presentation. page 2 of 5

Page footer stands for a section printed at the end of each page, usually contains information about the report generation date, page number or some report identifier.

3 The report designer offers also a group header and a group footer, their application depends on the type of data and definitions of its grouping. Similarly to the forms, MS Access offers the following tools for creating reports: toolbox properties: Their application is the same as in the case of forms. A report operates on data from a single source, a table or a query. Therefore one has to define the data source in the properties' data tab. The toolbox is slightly different than for the forms, its most important formants are: label displays any text not referring to the data set, usually labels contain field names, text field displays information from the data source, combo box looks the same a a text field, its additional properties are the row source and a column, as in the case of link creator field type in table definition. Placing formants in a report can be simplified with a field list tool. A field can be dragged into a report, then a formant consisting of a text field and label is created automatically. Grouping If fields in the report contain duplicated values, the report legibility can be improved by grouping. Then such field will be displayed only once (the operation similar to GROUP BY in SQL). Grouping is performed with Sorting and grouping tool, where one has to add a field meant for grouping: You can also define a group header and a group footer. After defining the group, the report will be changed as in the picture below: page 3 of 5

A report operates on data from a single source, a table or a query. Therefore one has to define the data source in the properties' data tab.

4 And the final result will be: Complex reports Complex reports, as in the case of complex forms, consists of at least two reports logically linked. In order to create a complex report, place in the main report a subform/subreport formant, defining its source (subreport) and the linking field properties. A complex report could look as follows: page 4 of 5

In order to create a complex report, place in the main report a subform/subreport

5 Combining reports and forms Very often there is a need to print data presented in an existing form. The most convenient to achieve this functionality is to place in the form a button printing or displaying data from the form. A useful tool would be the code creator. If during placing the button the formant creator function (a magic wand icon) is enabled in the toolbox, MS Access will suggest some typical actions, including the ones operating on reports. After selecting report displaying or printing, an appropriate code will be generated. Besides the code creator, there is also a possibility to type the appropriate code selecting design an event... from the context menu. The code for report printing looks as follows: DoCmd.OpenReport Report1, acnormal and the code for report displaying: DoCmd.OpenReport Report1, acpreview If only the data currently presented in the form is to be printed (not the whole report), use the code like this: Dim stdocname As String Dim stlinkcriteria As String stlinkcriteria = "[ALBUM_ID]=" & Me![ALBUM_ID] stdocname = "Albums 2" DoCmd.OpenReport stdocname, acpreview,, stlinkcriteria Exercises 1. Create reports presenting data displayed in the forms from the previous exercises. In case of complex forms use grouping and/or complex reports. For the simple forms display all the data, for the complex ones only the current record. 2. Create reports presenting data from the SELECT queries from the previous exercises. page 5 of 5

If during placing the button the formant creator function (a magic wand icon) is enabled in the toolbox, MS Access will suggest some typical actions, including the ones operating on reports.

A database is a collection of data organised in a manner that allows access, retrieval, and use of that data.

Microsoft Access A database is a collection of data organised in a manner that allows access, retrieval, and use of that data. A Database Management System (DBMS) allows users to create a database; add,