Oracle Reports can generate report output that includes a delimiter to delimited files (for example, files that contain comma-separated or tab-separated data), which are easily imported into spreadsheets or for use with word processors.
Oracle Reports provides two choices for generating delimited output:
Delimited: uses the paper layout to generate the output.
DelimitedData (for use when you have problems running large volume reports with Delimited): does not take into account the paper layout, and directly runs off the data model (that is, all fields that are available in the data model will appear in the output, not only those that are displayed in paper layout).
You can specify a delimiter (a character or string of characters) to separate the data (boilerplate or field objects) in your report output in either of the following ways:
On the command line using the DELIMITER
keyword.
Note: If you do not specify a delimiter, the default delimiter is a tab.
You can further distinguish the cells by using a cell wrapper. A cell wrapper can consist of any series of characters, such as a comma or parentheses.
For example, if the data in your report output includes the same character as the delimiter (for example, a comma), you can use the parentheses cell wrapper to distinguish each cell:
(1,000,000),(3,6000),(543),(2,003,500)…
DelimitedData output
When you generate a report to DelimitedData output, only data (as defined by the report data model) displays in the output. Any formatting changes defined in the layout are not reflected in the DelimitedData output.
You can set the following column properties to alter column names and exclude columns from the DelimitedData output file:
The XML Tag property can be used to enter a column alias.
To generate report output that preserves the report layout information, see About spreadsheet output.
Delimited output
When you generate a report to Delimited output, the data displays according to the positions of the objects in the Paper Layout view.
If you create a matrix in your report, be sure to align your objects carefully according to the grid in the Layout Model view. If the objects are not aligned, Reports Builder may interpret the extra space as an extra row or column and disrupt your report output.
If you create a boilerplate object outside of a matrix, each instance of the boilerplate repeats with every row (not column) of the matrix. Note that boilerplates contained in the matrix will not be repeated will field objects outside of the matrix.
ID
(in uppercase)
as the first field, you will be unable to open the file in Microsoft Excel.
The following delimited output causes an error in Excel:
ID, name, title, dept
If you want to generate delimited output that contains an ID
field, try changing the database column name to lowercase (that is, id
)
or rearranging the order of the fields.
Report distribution does not support Delimited
output format. You cannot specify DELIMITED
as an output format
in a distribution XML file or in the Distribution dialog box.
Note: You can distribute a report in DelimitedData output
format, specified either in a distribution XML file or in the Distribution
dialog box in Reports Builder.
Report bursting does not support Delimited or DelimitedData output format.
Running and dispatching a report from the user interface
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