Free ad-hoc reporting tools

[afsin...@optonline.net]

I am in need of an ad-hoc reporting tool for generating reports from a
database on an SQL server. Crystal Reports has all of the
functionality I need but the price tag is too high.

Are there any free tools out there like crystal Reports?

[Simon Hayes]

One option is Reporting Services, which is free if you have a SQL
Server license:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/default.asp

Simon

[buckn...@yahoo.com]

depending on your needs, you might want to also consider tools like
php, ruby, python, etc: while they lack some of crystal report's
functionality, I think that they more than make up with it with:
- cost
- ease of integration with standard applications
- flexibility in presenting info
- ease of publishing over web
- ability to easily manage application within standard version
control environment

I think the only weakness of this kind of approach is that it requires
light programming skills that crystal doesn't, and that it doesn't lend
itself to printable reports as much as crystal/brio/etc do. On the
other hand, simple tables & charts are a breeze, and I'd much rather
have 20 inter-linked pages on the web in php, than 20 crystal reports
on someone's desk.

buck

[DA Morgan]

afsin...@optonline.net wrote:

Perhaps you haven't noticed ... but IBM DB2 and Oracle are not
Microsoft products. If not Crystal look at Cognos.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damo...@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

[Igor Shekalev]

www.fast-report.com offers FreeReport, Freeware reporting tool based on
previous version of the FastReport.

a> Are there any free tools out there like crystal Reports?

Igor Shekalev, www.sqledit.com - powerful database tools