Editing and formatting a report : Exporting report data

Exporting report data

The viewers support the ability to export report data as a comma-separated values (.csv) file, a pipe-separated values (.psv) file, or a tab-separated values (.tsv) file. All three types of files store data in a flat file format, which Excel can read. The difference between these formats is the character used as the data delimiter, which can be a comma, pipe, or tab. You choose a format to export report data based on the requirements of the application to which you export the data, and the purpose for which you plan to use the exported data.

Once you choose a format to export the data, Excel displays the exported data in a spreadsheet. You can now resize columns and format the data as you would do for any other spreadsheet.

You can also export data columns by selecting a column, and choosing Export Data from the right-arrow menu, as shown in Figure 3-14.

Figure 3-14  Exporting data columns

When you export reports using the Export Data option, for some reports that contain charts, there may be columns that are not displayed. For example, in the storage systems report, the chart consists of the OS Version and the OS Version Count. However, when this report is exported, only the OS Version is displayed.