User-Defined Reports allow the option to create a text
file as the output rather than outputting a report to a printer. This facility is usually used to create a CSV
file to interface with other application or to create a BACS payment file to
upload to your bank. The output process
only allowed for the creation of one file from any one report – this new
feature allows you to create multiple files from the same report. To enable the creation of an output file from
a User-Defined Report you need to set the output filename within the Tools /
Report Options parameter screen.
Specify the Full Pathname of the Disk File to be Created – here you set the filename of the text file to be created from the profiler user-defined report.Where the report is to create multiple files however you just specify a ‘holding’ filename here – the existence of a filename within this option enables additional options within the $SUBTOTAL report configuration.
With the exception of the facility to allow the pathname to be confirmed, which is not applicable within multiple file creation, the remaining options for formatting of the text file on this parameter screen apply equally in single or multi-file creation mode.
To create the multiple text files you need to set an
additional parameter to the $SUBTOTAL control block, the $SUBTOTAL block allows
you to specify a BREAK condition and a SAVEFILE setting. In general use the BREAK condition prints the
sub-total on change of a data item, in file creation mode it is used in
conjunction with the SAVEFILE setting to control where one text file ends and
the next begins.
In setting the SAVEFILE options you are asked for the
path and filename to be created. If you
specified a standard filename then the file would overwrite each time but you
can also use ‘!nnn’ (where nnn is a data item number) to use the content of a
field on the last record processed before the sub-total, in addition you can
use ‘ACCUMnnn’ and ‘CONSTnnn’ to be replaced with values from the accumulator
and constant files respectively.
Notes
This facility is only available for ‘new-style’ User-Defined Reports
You can use !nnn within the pathname of the file to be created but the report will not create the folder if it does not already exist.
Article ID: 154
Created On: Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 3:15 PM
Last Updated On: Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 5:46 PM
Online URL: https://kb.datafile.co.uk/article/user-defined-reports-multiple-file-output-154.html