Report generators
A report generator is a facility for creating reports from data stored in the database. It is
similar to a query language in that it allows the user to ask questions of the database and
retrieve information from it for a report. However, in the case of a report generator, we
have much greater control over what the output looks like. We can let the report generator
automatically determine how the output should look or we can create our own customized
output reports using special report-generator command instructions.
There are two main types of report generator: language-oriented and visually oriented.
In the first case, we enter a command in a sublanguage to define what data is to be included
in the report and how the report is to be laid out. In the second case, we use a facility
similar to a forms generator to define the same information