Fitting Reports On The Page; Printing Totals Before Detail Lines - Compaq COBOL AAQ2G1FTK User Manual

Producing Printed Reports
10.10 Solving Report Problems
Table 10–2 (Cont.) Results of Group Indicating
Without Group Indicating
STATE CITY
Massachusetts Maynard
Massachusetts Maynard
Massachusetts Maynard
Massachusetts Maynard
Massachusetts Tewksbury
Massachusetts Tewksbury
New Hampshire Manchester
New Hampshire Manchester
New Hampshire Merrimack
New Hampshire Merrimack
New Hampshire Merrimack
New Hampshire Nashua

10.10.3 Fitting Reports on the Page

If you need more columns than physically can fit on a page, you can do the
following:
• Eliminate as many unused spaces as possible between columns. Columns
should not be run together; however, you can use one blank space instead of
several.
• Eliminate nonessential information.
• Print two or more lines with staggered headers and columns.
• Print two reports.

10.10.4 Printing Totals Before Detail Lines

A report that must include totals at the top of the page before the detail lines has
three solutions as follows:
• Store the logical print lines in a table, total the table, and then print from the
table.
• Pass through the file twice. The first time, compute the totals. The second
time, print the report. This method is slow and complicated if there are many
subtotals.
• Write the lines into a file with a sort key containing the report, page, and
line number. When your program writes the last line and computes the total,
have it assign a page and line number to the total line's sort key. Use an
appropriate page and line number to cause the total line to sort in front of its
detail lines. After the program completes, sort the file, read it, drop the sort
key, and produce the report.
10–88 Producing Printed Reports
STORE
NUMBER STATE
111111 Massachusetts
222222
333333
444444
111111 Massachusetts
222222
111111 New Hampshire
222222
333333 New Hampshire
444444
555555
666666 New Hampshire
With Group Indicating
STORE
CITY NUMBER
Maynard 111111
222222
333333
444444
Tewksbury 111111
222222
Manchester 111111
222222
Merrimack 333333
444444
555555
Nashua 666666