Reporter Features (Comet 504 and higher)
1. Report execution is much faster after the initial overhead of
generating and compiling the MTB program.
2. All MTB functions are supported in the DEFINE command.
3. Edit masks from #FILES are used on PRINT fields.
4. Rounding is used, if specified in #FILES.
5. Hex constants in expressions are supported (e.g., "@FF@").
6. There is no more limit of 252 characters maximum per output
record. The maximum is the declared MARGIN, up to 1024
characters.
7. A type 2 gateway must be configured if the SORT command is
used (i.e., there is no more "slow sort" option).
8. The previous limit on the number of SELECTING statements is
gone.
9. The previous limit on space required for the DEFINE
statement and expressions from #FILES is gone.
10. The Reporter uses the MoreThanBasic INQUIRE statement to read
data files so report execution is not interrupted for an
extracted record.
11. Blank report lines will now be printed without having to
append a non-printable character (e.g., if the second line of
an address is blank on mailing labels).
12. Note: Report specifications may need to be modified if
SELECTING statements are used with strings in image files
because of the length byte problem.
13. Like the Qantel report Generator (but unlike the old
Reporter), the print lines will be dropped if a link fails.
You can add a full-key link to the end of the USING
statement(s) to force the PRINT.
14. The Reporter automatically includes a leading minus sign on
negatively valued numeric fields when writing to a SDF or
delimited output file. See the PRINTER statement.