Hi,

I am generating an excel report. I am using a free hand SQL joining five tables to show in the report body.

My requirement is I have to display a date field which comes from a table in the report header.

I can use it as an inline query in the same SQL which I am using it for report body, but performance may hit.

How can I use two hold files, where one file is for showing only date field in report header; and another holding report data to be displayed in the report body?

Any help in this would be appreciated.

Thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

Use a separate extract for the date and SAVE the data output. Then READ it into a variable and use than within your heading. Fairly basic stuff so it begs the questions - Have you had any training? If not why not?

T

It works...Thanks tony.

Thank you very much

T: Curious. You were thanked for helping, but did you get an answer to what YOU asked re: training? Or was it off and running...hmmm.

Also, nice hebrew below your signature.


Ira
Aix 533 WF 538 (Dev)
Aix 533 WF 533 (Prod)
Win 2005 WF 761 (Test)

Ira,

I suppose the "no response" to my questions actually answered them - no training because it's an outsourcing sweat shop with a "shut up and get on with the job" attitiude. For each individual employed there, I guess that there are at least five others who will happily take their job should it become vacant

I suppose the real question is "Who are we really helping here?"

• The individual because they achieve results and therefore keep their job?
• The outsourcing company by providing their staff with free training?
• Ourselves in feeling better that we have helped someone?
• IB by providing "free" methodlogy support?

In the longterm I suppose the biggest winner is the outsourcing companies, because all the time we are willing to provide answers to their employees "requirements" they save in providing structured training.

I have reduced the amount of response that I provide in certain circumstances and I know that several other members have the same inclination. I definitely do not respond to people who appear to "demand" help and I responded to Vasantha because of the way the question was asked.

I also (try to anyway) not provide code examples in the more simplistic of questions such as this one because if the requestor has any ability at all then they will be able to expand on the response for themselves.

The only way we are going to stop those without training from continually asking for basics is not to supply an answer, but then that is for each person to decide for themselves. However, if we pose a united front then individuals (and therefore their companies) will learn.

T

quote:

is not to supply an answer

... and by that I mean coded examples!

T

i suppose that if everyone took that stance those who can't be courteous or feel they can demand answers without entereing into any kind of dialogue would eventually have to 'get their hands dirty' and start to learn these things for themselves...

of course the effect of that could be a great improvement in the ability of the average outsourced coder, which in turn would eventually bring their prices up as they begin to compete with the professional companies...

of course this is an oversimplified but the net effect could be that the outsource code houses reduce in number and those left are the ones with the talent able to compete - thereby increasing the income of the coder and stopping every BI fuction from being automatically outsourced as it would no longer be nessecarily cheaper...

really i feel for the employees expected to compete in the industry when thir company provides them no training or support but some of them don't help themselves with their attitude...

Gaining more skill when working for one of the cheap Indian outsourcers in no way
means that the individual concerned is going to get more money.

It simply means that the individual will probably be replaced by someone who has to start
again from scratch for the same money with no complaints or expectations.

The reasons companies outsource is to save money, rarely do they obtain the same service level
or the same quality, either of personnel or deliverables.

But the bottom line for most western economy companies is very simple, we have to be seen to be
reducing head counts and costs, thereby increasing profits and dividends.

The fact that WebFocus customers do this just makes them the same as everyone else.

Governments will not do anything about it because business screams that any restrictions
will make them uncompetitive.

Information Builders can not do anything about it because they are the software supplier
and once the customer has paid for the stuff he is entitled to have anyone he likes do the
work providing the software remains installed where it is supposed to be.

The vast majority of outsourced companies do not care if 1 person or 20 people work on a project
providing that it comes in at the correct price.

What would be very interesting to know is how many of these outsourcing companies
have actually licensed the correct number of development seats for the people that
they have doing the work. Very few I expect.

John,

Does IB use outsourcing companies?

T

Tony,

That's actually a difficult question to answer with a straight yes or no.

There is IBI from the point of view of product development and then
there are the IBI US sales and services businesses. These are broken down into
semi independent regional organizations in the US.
Outside the US there are the IBI subsidiaries and partners that are broken down on a geographic
and country basis for example EMEA (England, France, Finland, Germany etc.).
All have sales and services operations.

Normally services for a project will be provided by the region or subsidiary that won the project.
However, if a services part of any IBI US Region or a subsidiary or partner can not supply the required
resources for a project they have won from its own supply of consultants, then required resources
will brought in from another part of the wider IBI organization.

If the resources can not be found within the whole of IBI then local external consultants
will be used, but as part of an IBI lead team.

IBI does not outsource projects to none IBI organizations or partners, but it does outsource
internally, if that makes sense.

From a product development viewpoint I can give you better authority than

Mr. Gerald Cohen

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=101493&pageNumber=1

John,

Having worked on the tech support desk in London (as a contractor, when it was still at Wembley and when there [u]was[/u] tech support in the UK) I understand how the subsiduaries function and the occasional need to contract certain functions with outside resources.

However, I was more interested in whether IB actually used some of the Indian companies in certain circumstances. I guess from Gerry's replies (and occasional "expletives") in the interview that he's primarily against it - with the exception of certain QA work and when the price suits!

Like you, I would be interested to know how many of the (particularly) Indian outsourcing companies are correctly licenced for the outsourcing projects for UK and US industry!

T

I think that helping here is more your 3th point.....gives sometimes a nice feeling and sometimes it hits me because they bring up something where I say "that should be possible but how".

BTW you tried bold and underline but that seems not to work butbold and italic should work I hope.
Underline is not supported here......

Tony,

Unfortunately with regard licensing it is a company’s legal contractual responsibility to ensure
that it has the required licenses for any work that it or its employees do using IBI software.

It is not as as far as I am aware a requirement that they are responsible for their outsourced
services suppliers.

That I believe is a major error on the part of IB and probably almost all software suppliers in general.

A legal requirement for a company to ensure that their outsourced service suppliers were fully legal
with the software that they are using would probably have a major impact on the situation.
And a lot of companies would not bother to outsource because the costs would be much higher.
(The reason is an, outsourcing company must pay a much higher fee for WebFocus and its components
as they must license it for multiple client usage.
A normal license is restricted to use only by and for the company that has bought it and not for third parties)

A legal bill to introduce that into contractual law would be very easy to put in place in most countries.
But nobody has the will.

To defend the people (me included). Many of us are thrown into companies using webfocus - companies that will not provide training but merely slap a book onto your desk and say get on with it.
The books are good, but obviously don't cover every situation, no matter how simple - all it takes is someone experienced to point you in the right direction, as in this case.

I can honestly say that I often run into problems that baffle me (probably simple to the likes of most posters on this forum), but avoid posting a question in fear of the 'nasty' comments/assumption often made, and then tend leave the problem - hoping that in the future I may know more or come across something in a book that gives me some direction.

Anyway, that's my opinion, not trying to step on any toes! ;-)

Jinx,

If you're given a book then that's more than I had when I started out

Don't give up on asking questions as we all have bad days, just remember that the advice given here is free and should not be seen to be "demanded" as has been the case in some recent posts. Also remember that a little thank you goes a long way in getting future responses.

As has been said before, if you can show that you have done as much groundwork as you are capable of and that you are not asking because it will save you time, then you are more likely to get a response.

T

Jinx,

The main issue is not those people who have a genuine need for assistance and have
at least tried to come up with a direction of a solution and have a least tried to search the
forum. (For most topics/issues except perhaps the very latest new features you will almost always
find some pointers if you search)
It is those, of which there are a number that could be named, who demand that you provide them with a solution. They often do not even give a basic overview of what they are trying to achieve.

They say tell me how to do this, when you give them pointers as to the approach to take
they then immediately come back and demand, give me some example code.
Then when you give them an example they come back yet again and say I can not get the example
to work in my code, will you fix it for me.

There is a very big difference between helping and doing a job someone else is supposed to be being paid for

As far as forums go Focal Point is one of the best that you will find with people offering
help and assistance.

In this case Vasantha has obviously tried to at least have a go at a solution and when Tony gave him the pointers he obviously went and checked the key components of Tony’s reply and solved the problem.

There is absolutely no problem with helping and assisting learners and the less experienced . We were all there at one time or another.

But everyone should at least try to help themselves as well.

I can only reiterate what JG and Tony A are saying.

unfortunately im not sure it will even be read by those its aimed at- and yes while we can stop answering their posts- there will always (or at least 99% of the time) be someone who will come along and do their work for them anyway

personally i don't know why i care so much but the sheer presumption does wind me up-

Frank,

quote:

Underline is not supported here......

I know, but it still helped highlight it a bit

JG,

quote:

I can not get the example to work in my code, will you fix it for me.

They often leave out the "will you" as well which is obviously when it starts to sound like a demand!

T

Tony, I agree it is a problem and has been for a while now. Ultimately the outsourcing option is clearly (to me) the one that benefits. I am no longer responding with a coded answer when it is clear to me that no attempt at a search was made. I will provide the suggeston to SEARCH and mention the area where to search. Of course to those who clearly have made the effort and just have not hit with success, I am most happy to assist. Your approach is commended and respected by many of us here on the forum. Your tiredless persistence is TRULY appreciated.

Ira
aix 533 wf 538 (dev) 533 (prod)
win 2003 wf 761 (test)