Re: Do you need a "on every row" or "on last row"?

In article <2924a1INNgbi@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> bryan@carsinfo.com (Bryan Klopfenstein) writes: >Cathy Kipp writes: > >} Bob Beaulieu writes: >} >} ->Should one be able to have a report that has a select which just prints >} ->data in the header part of the format section? >} -> >} ->A recent upgrade to 4.10 from 4.00 is no longer allowing this. >} >} Yes. 4GL behaves this way. ACE should too. We get the same behavior >} on our IBM RS6000. Since you called Informix Tech Support, do they >} have a bug number for this problem? If not, do they consider it an >} undocumented feature? > >Note that this appears to be an undocumented change in behavior from >4.00 to 4.10 (and continues in 4.11, by the way). > >} Actually I have found one or two other problems with this rev of ACE... >} it does seem to be a bit buggy. > >What sort of problems? I'd be interested in seeing what these other bugs are too! > >} [stuff deleted] >} >} ->format >} ->page header >} ->print "This should be printing out even if customer_num is not found" >} >} Actually this is not true. A report is only formatted if data is found. I don't agree with you on this. Our personnel dept runs many reports monthly (layoffs,rehires,reclass,promotions,demotions,...) and with 300+ employees there are some situations where there's no-activity. In such cases, they still want a report saying so. In which case, just the header info would print out. /*****sample report ******/ Printed on 10/7/1993 Company Name Report of Layoffs for 10/01/93 ***** No Layoffs ***** In 4.00, this worked... >} This is consistent with 4GL behavior. It would be nice to set an option >} to create a report even if no data is found, but it does not exist at >} this point in time. The only way I know of creating an empty report is Not now! :((( But, it did since I've been with Informix back in the 3.3 days. >} to do it in 4GL by calling the report routine explicitly if no >} information is found. We write our reports this way since coming back >} with a report file of size 0 could mean other problems besides no data >} existing for this report. > >Many of our users expect to see a nicely formatted report with no data >if that's what the database says. To them, an empty output file means, >"Something went wrong. Better call support." This brings up another question. The particular report that triggered my posting outputs to a file. The size is 0. Why didn't Informix just remove it, if it was never written to after it was open? Or check it and report to the user nothing was written to the file? > >Like you say, a report file of size 0 could mean other problems. In >previous versions, it ONLY meant other problems. -- ___________________________________________________________________________ |EZ TRAVEL (Bob Beaulieu) Internet : eztravel@netcom.com | |4640-B Meridian San Jose, CA 95124 Telephone: (408) 978-0808 | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | $Best Fares$.........Great Service.......International/Domestic | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~