I often hear customers and students complaining about the complexity of creating reports. Statements like; “the database is a mystery” and “I am not a SQL expert. I agree, the database can be a mystery. But using the proper tools and some very basic SQL skills you will be able to create powerful reports.
I will post 4 parts explaining the basics and how to build a few reports.
Views:
Reports are based on SQL views. A view is basically just a query joining one or more tables. Knowing a few basics of the naming standard I very helpful:
V_GS_Name = Contains current inventory data
V_HS_Name = Contains history inventory data
V_R_Name = Contains Scalar Discovery data.
V_RA_Name = Contains Array (Multi value) Discovery data.
SQL Server Management Studio:
I use SQL Server Management Studio to create the reports. It’s a nice graphical interface and I can easily test the syntax.
Conditionals:
SQL uses well-known conditionals like:
<
>
=
AND
OR
NOT
DISTINCT
LIKE
TOP
Aggregate Functions:
GROUP BY
COUNT
MIN
MAX
In Part Two I will walk you through "our" first report.
