VB.Net 2003 - DataSet to Report

[jpayn05]

Hello,

My question concerns what I'm trying to do more than how to do it. I'm using VB.Net for a Windows app that will perform a series of calculations based on user input. Rather than displaying the calculation results in the form, I'd like them displayed in a report that can be printed. I don't have any experience with Crystal Reports and my version of VB doesn't have CR anyway.

I've searched the web and it seems the consensus is to generate a dataset to hold the results and then write this dataset to a report. Some said Excel works and others used the reports in Access. Although, I 'd rather that the app be stand alone and not rely on another program. There are also some free report generators (i.e.- Raqsoft) that seem like they might work also.

If anyone has any experience or advice on what I'm trying to do, I'd appreciate any comments. Also, if there's a better way or reporting tool, I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
jpayn05

 

[RiverGuy]

I've automated Excel several times in VB.Net to produce reports. This includes basic formatting. If needed, you can use late binding so that you don't have to have a specific version of Excel (or any version) referenced in your project. The downside here is that the code gets rather large and it is more time consuming than designing a report in a GUI based tool.

I've also used the PrintDocument component to print out basic reports. This is an option, but it's even a bit more involved than automating Excel.

If you are thinking about upgrading Visual Studio to 2008, there's a built in reporting tool based on SQL Server Reporting Services technology.

Other than that, I haven't used any of the freeware reporting libraries, but the above gives you some options as to what's out there.

 

[DjangMan]

Four letters: html

 

[jpayn05]

RiverGuy and Djangman,

Thanks for your replies!