Re: theory and practice: ying and yang

"Kenneth Downs" <knode.wants.this_at_see.sigblock> wrote in message news:d3sdn2-tnl.ln1_at_pluto.downsfam.net...
> mountain man wrote:

>> Let's talk simple reporting, rather than update routines]
>> to start off with. In the DB we have the data and we have
>> the reports in the form of stored procedures. (NB: These
>> reports can be multi-dimensional [summary, detail, etc]
>> because stored proces can be chained together).
>>
>> External to the database we have a tool, that has code
>> of course, but no code related to the organisation specifically.
>> It is code to provide services to present data sets (ie: reports)
>> that have been generated by the sprocs on the data, and to
>> allow the user to sort, filter and export these data sets. The
>> same tool is used for any and every industry.
>>
>> So what I mean is that these is no code which is specific to
>> that organisation's database application that is external to
>> the DB, it has been 100% contained within the DB, by
>> the above method and arrangment.
>
> OK, I see.
>
> But when the external code writes a report, how does it know what the
> column
> titles should be? How wide the columns are?

There is no external code. The report is written by a DBA (or nominated party) in SQL (from report specifications that have been prepared in consultation with the client organisation) and saved as a stored procedure, column titles, column widths and default sort being specified in the sproc.

The only program development code used is SQL. A SQL sproc code generator *would* be interesting.

-- 
Pete Brown
IT Managers & Engineers
Falls Creek
Australia
www.mountainman.com.au/software