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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation: USING REPORTS > Loading SQL for Reports |
In very unusual circumstances, you may need to do something special with an existing report that cannot be done with a different built-in report, or via the Sort or Filter buttons. Please contact us for support, and explain exactly which report (which menu option) you are looking at, and how you need it to be different. We will tell you whether there is a way to get what you want.
One way that we may be able to help you in some cases is to give you a modified version of the SQL (the database language for selecting the data for reports) for a given report, and have you load it with the Load SQL button on the report-viewing window. We will give you full instructions for doing so in that case.
If you are going to try modifying the SQL yourself, it's important to understand that you cannot change the list of fields being retrieved by it (the part between "SELECT" and "FROM"), other than to change the definition of an existing field so that it's another field of the same data type (e.g. text / number / date). You cannot add or remove fields from the list, because the report's definition knows exactly what fields should be supplied to it and the program will likely crash with any such change. What does work is to change the selection criteria (the part after "WHERE").
Changes to a report made with the Load SQL button can also be memorized by the Memorize button for memorizing reports. That way, rather than having to run the report normally and then use the Load SQL button to load the file we supplied to you each time, you can memorize the report once after using Load SQL, and then replay it in the future with Reports ⇒ Memorized Reports.