Crystal Reports: Useful SQL Utility–Crystal SQL Designer

• Crystal Reports: SQL introduction

• Crystal Reports: Generate SQL to Change Selected Records in Crystal Reports

• Crystal Reports: SQL Commands in Crystal Reports

• Crystal Reports: SQL Left Join

• Crystal Reports: SQL Commands for Creating Audit Records in Crystal Reports

• Crystal Reports: SQL Expressions and Sub Selects

If you do a "Full" install of Crystal Reports, you get the Crystal SQL Designer and Crystal Dictionary programs installed. These can be very useful additions to your reporting weaponry.

Click here for an article on the Crystal Dictionary.

The Crystal SQL Designer has an expert that can gently lead you through an inquiry against your database or you can enter your SQL directly. The retrieved records can then be used as the source for a report, or exported to another format.

So why use it? There are several advantages you might discover.

1) You can save data in your QRY file. This means you execute the SQL against the main database once, and then can process your Crystal Reports against the QRY file without compromising the performance of your main database.

2) You also have the ability to send the QRY file to a remote site, so a user there can process reports without requiring a connection to your original data

3) If the Application developer doesn’t want you to have permission to make changes to the Db, you can use this tool to process the SQL you would normally use in a view or stored procedure.

4) A full set of SQL functions is available here including Summary functions, and UNION joins.

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