What is your reporting tool of choice? [closed]

Answer 1

"Give them data and they will love you for it"

Out of the methods and tools I've used in the past, I would rank them in the following order based on abilities/versatility/usability/speed to deploy. I'm leaving cost out of it because while it is always a factor it is a different factor for everyone.

1 is Cognos (version 8)

2 is SQL Server Reporting

3 is Crystal Reports

4 is Custom written code

I haven't used any of the other tools mentioned. Cognos 8 is nothing short of awesome. While pricey, you are only limited by your imagination. It can do anything.

Answer 2

I would have to agree, I really like SQL Server Reporting Services. It just does stuff, and does it easily.

Answer 3

Tableau software is an amazing tool to run your reports and get easily deep throught analysis

Answer 4

I'm the CTO at Windward and I do believe that Windward Reports is by far both the easiest to use and you can do more with it than any other reporting - and both traits are for the same reason, you design your reports in Word, Excel, & PowerPoint.

As to the generated reports, it's fast, it's rock solid, and incorporating it into your program can be as little as 3 lines of code.

Answer 5

We've been using BIRT which had a steep learning curve for me until I realized how many WYSIWIG features it had (I started editing the xml source code direct, which I don't recommend.) There are some output specific tricks (like using a 0 left margin to not get a blank A column when outputting to XLS format) but for the most part it's quick and easy to use, edit and preview.

I have also been impressed on how easy it is to intermix different datasets in a single report. While not a silver bullet, its a better all around tool than 99.999% of people are going to build on their own.