Oracle Reports Important Frequently Asked Questions

1) What is ANCHOR?

A) These are used to determine the vertical and horizontal positioning of the child object relative to its position.

             Tool which we will use in the layout to destroy the field horizontally or vertically whenever field gets null value.

 When we have multiple fields in layout if any one of the field gets null value the next field should gets automatically adjusted in that place that time we will use anchor.

2) What is frame?

A) Frame is the place in the layout model where we place an object to display only once in the report output.

3) What is repeating frame?

A) It is also a place in the layout editor where we place an object to display repeatedly

 In the report output

4) What are action, format and validation triggers?

A) ACTION TRIGGERS: action triggers are pl/sql procedures executed when button is selected

EX: calling a report

     FORMAT TRIGGERS: format triggers are pl/sql functions which we will use to display layout object in the report.

     The return type is always true or false.

EX: no data found we will write a validation trigger for this boiler plate text.

     VALIDTION TRIGGERS: we will use to validate the lov values in the parameter form. 

5) What are Report Triggers?

A) Report triggers are 5 types. They are

              1) Before parameter form.

                2) After parameter form.

                3) Before report trigger.

                4) Between pages.

                5) After Report trigger       

               

6) What is the difference between after parameter form and before report trigger?

A) After parameter for will fire in Parsed time.

     Before report trigger will fire in the execution time.

7) What are Bind and Lexical parameters?

A Bind parameter: Bind parameter is a variable which we will use to pass the value.

    ‘:’ before any variable in a query is called as bind variable.

   Lexical parameters: Lexical parameter is a parameter which we will use inside of a query. These parameters we can use any where inside of query.

EX: select, from, where, order by

8)      What are system parameters?

A)    There are around 78 system parameters. Some of them are

                    1) Background

                       2) Currency

                         3) Copies

                         4) Decimal 

                         5) Desformat

                         6) Desname

                          7) Destype

                          8) Mode

                          9) Orientation

                         10) Destintion

9)      What are formula, summary and placeholder columns?

A)    Formula column: It is a pl/sql block which will calculate a value based on our logic and it will return one value.

Summary column: It is a pl/sql block which we will use to print the result of aggregate functions like sum, avg and count either at page level or at report level.

Placeholder column: It is a column which will have the data type and value. It works like global variable in reports.

                        If we want to return more than one value then we will use placeholder column in formula column.

10) How to run a report from a report?

A)    We will place button in the repeating frame of layout editor. And in that button code we will write code as follows

Srw.run_report (‘path of .rdf file’, paramform = no, dept = “‘||:deptno||’”’);

Save the report and generate it.

11) What is user exit?

A)    User exit is a program which will transfer the control from report execution to another third generation language it will the required data & it will complete the remaining report execution process.

  12)What is srw.do_sql, srw.message, srw.referene.srw.program_abort?

A)      srw.do_sql:  used to execute DDL commands in reports.

Syntax: srw.do_sql (‘create table tname’);

Srw.message: used to display message in reports.

Srw.reference: used to refer the variables in formula columns.

Srw.program_abort: This exception stops report execution and raises the following exceptions.

Rep-1419 pl/sql program aborted

10)  How to execute DDL commands in reports?

A)    We will execute the DDL commands in reports by using the following user exit.

                Srw.do_sql (‘create table tname ()’);

11)  How to change the layout dynamically?

A)    A lay out can be changed dynamically by passing the parameters.

12)  How to implement lexical parameters in reports?

A)    & before any parameter is called as lexical parameters. We can use these parameters in any class  of the query

          Ex: select, where, order by

13)  What is the report global variable?

A)    Place holder column is the report global variable. We can return more than one value by using place holder column.

14)  What is matrix report?

A)  Display information row, column and  cell  format

15)  The report output is 10 pages then how many times between pages report trigger will fire?

A)    It will fire 8 times. Between pages report trigger will not fire for 1^st and last page.

16)  Report will not have any parameters then before and after parameters will fire or not?

A)  yes