A reporting tool using “programming by example” for format designation

This paper describes a report tool in which report formats are designated by “Programming by Example”-like operations. Users specify a sample layout of an example row of relational table data on a sheet, and select an iteration pattern of the sample layout. The tool extracts a set of general formatting rules from the sample layout. The rules consist of absolute positions of non-iterative data, relative positions of iterative data, the iteration pattern, and the increment of the iteration. The tool interprets the rules and generates new reports of the format for different table data.