SQL Power Software Forum

Hi,

I created a report based on my query. I I change the order of amount of columns in the query I can see the changes in the report too. But if I change the name of a column using an alias, I can't see the change in the report. In my case I have a constant just doing one calculation (actual_amt / 12), by default Wabit gives the column name ?column?. After changing that name to something more readable the report kept the old column name.

This report made me think of another enhancement:
- The default alignment of numeric columns should be "Right". You could also give them the default format '#,##0.00' or '#,##0.000', I think that is what most people want to see.

Cheers,
Benjamin

Hi Benjamin,

The reason why you don't see a change to the column names in the report when you alias them in the query is we are allowing each report to specify unique names for columns from the queries. If you go to the properties panel of the query in your report you will see you can change each column name. These column names override the column names in the query once you add the query to a report. This was done so each column in each report could be given a more meaningful name based on the report.

I agree that numeric columns should be right aligned but I don't think we should set the default format to #,##0.00. I think it is more normal to go from a query to a report where they both have the same default format and then choose your formatting then to go from a query to a report where the formatting of your columns are different and if you don't want that format you have to remove it. What do you think?

Thanks,

Thomas

In same ways it makes sense not to overwrite a column name that a user might have changed already. In future I'll try to do all changes to column names in the query before I create a report.

To have numeric columns right aligned was the most important issue for me. The formatting of numbers might be just my personal preference.