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From: cant@mrmarx.msc.com (Jim Cant)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Reports from SQL databases
Keywords: SQL reports
Message-ID: <5197@mrmarx.UUCP>
Date: 27 Mar 91 22:17:26 GMT
Sender: cant@mrmarx.UUCP
Organization: MainStream Software Corporation
Lines: 41

I have several questions and would appreciate any help I can get from
people on the net.

What is a good general reference for SQL that would cover generating
polished reports from databases in particular.  I suspect a text book
rather than user documentation for a specific database is what I 
need.  I need to solve problems such as the following.

Here is a general question.  I need to print reports with fields such
as sex and would like the printed output to say "male" or "female".  The
database contains 1 and 0 for these values.  How can I test each
record returned by a select statement for the value of sex and write
out "male" or "female" as appropriate.  One solution that occurs is to
create a second temporary table, put in the records of generated by the 
querry with a additional text field, then update the text field with
"male" or "female" depending on the value of the sex field.  The use 
this temporary table as the source of the data for the report.

Is this the right approach? Is it a good one?  Will it work at all?
(I am using Sybase on the IBM RS6000 running AIX v3.1)

Are there any good third party products for report generation from
SQL databases.  

Are there any other database oriented newsgroups? Any for SQL or for
particular products?


Thanks in advance


Jim Cant

p.s.  This is my first posting from a new Email address; would somebody
please respond just to test the mail system.  thanks


Jim Cant 			cant@mrmarx.msc.com
Mainstream Software Corp.		or
411 Waverly Oaks Road		uunet!mrmarx.msc.com!cant
Waltham, MA  02154		(617) 894-3399