Query v Report

[Garry]

Hi, I need to print a single report that contains many calculations

My question

Is it best to do these calculations in a query or in the report itself

At the moment I do via report but it sometimes takes about a minute before
the report can be viewed

 

[Access Developer]

As a general rule, if I can do the calculation in the Query that is Record
Source of a Report, that's where I do it. That Calculated Field is treated
by Reports the same as if it came directly from a Table; there are some
restrictions on further calculations on Calculated Fields in Reports. I
don't have "hard references" nor "test results" on which would be faster --
but my gut-feel would be that calculation in the Query would be faster,
though perhaps only marginally so. I know it makes for a "cleaner" Report
design that is easier for me to work with; some others have told me that
it's easier for them to work with a Report in which most/all calculation is
done in the Query, as well.

 

[Phil Hunt]

Go with query. You may need the calculated field in other reports.

In general, query is easier to work with than report.

 

[Neil]

I agree you should do it in the query. Another advantage is that if you ever
need to sort on the field, you can only do that if the value's in the query.
Also makes summations easier (don't have to repeat the calculation in the
summation field).