Specifications

About nested reports
348 InfoMaker
What you see in the
Design view
In the Design view, you see everything in the base report plus a box that
represents the related nested report:
The difference
between nested and
composite reports
There are two important differences between nesting using the Composite style
and nesting a report within a base report.
Data sources The composite report does not have a data source—it is just a
container for nested reports. In contrast, a base report with a nested report in it
has a data source. The nested report has its own data source.
Related nesting The composite report cannot be used to relate reports to
each other in the database sense. One report cannot feed a value to another
report, which is what happens in a master/detail report. If you want to relate
reports to each other so that you can create a master/detail report, you need to
place a nested report within a base report.
How retrieval works
When you preview (run) a composite report, InfoMaker retrieves all the rows
for one nested report, and then for another nested report, and so on until all
retrieval is complete. Your computer must have a default printer specified,
because composite reports are actually displayed in print preview mode.
When you preview (run) a report with another related report nested in it,
InfoMaker retrieves all the rows in the base report first. Then InfoMaker
retrieves the data for all nested reports related to the first row. Next, InfoMaker
retrieves data for nested reports related to the second row, and so on, until all
retrieval is complete for all rows in the base report.
For information about efficiency and retrieval, see “Supplying retrieval
arguments to relate a nested report to its base report” on page 357.