This section will give general information on how to create reports. Detailed instructions for specific packages are linked from here.

These packages will all use SQL to communicate with the database, and depending on the package used, some may allow SQL to be input directly (e.g. Excel: Mac) while others only allow limited access to the SQL, however they may offer alternative access methods such as Views created on the database (e.g. NeoOffice).

There are many good tutorials on SQL available as books, or web pages. The PostgreSQL documentation can be found here.

Tip:

When creating reports for the first time it may help to use a tool that allows access directly to the database (such as pgAdmin) as this will give a clearer view of how tables are linked and what data is stored in each table. Some packages allow the database to be viewed directly from within the package.