What's the best reporting tool for ad-hoc and custom-made reporting

From: Dino Hsu <dino1_at_ms1.hinet.net>
Date: 2000/08/05
Message-ID: <8mgv6i$6hhq5$1@ID-41926.news.cis.dfn.de>#1/1

Dear all,

We are using Oracle 8.0.5 for Windows NT. I know SQL*Plus and a little bit PL/SQL, for ad-hoc reporting, I can write a script something like this:

set pagesize 10000;
spool listdate;
select to_char(invoice_date,'yyyymmdd') inv_date,

       to_char(process_date,'yyyymmdd') proc_date,
       count(*) rec_cnt, sum(units) unit_sum from tb_orders

group by invoice_date, process_date;
spool off;
quit;

Furthermore, I need to get the group totals and the grand total, so I import his result into Excel or Access for the calculation, which is quite tedious. I think I need a good reporting tool for this.

I also found in the case of PL/SQL that Oracle provided tool is not the best, maybe 3rd party tool such as SQL Station or TOAD are the best. Can anyone commet on the best reporting tool for ad-hos and custom-made reporting requirements?

Thanks in advance.
Dino Received on Sat Aug 05 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT