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Learn More →Publish Reports with CSV Data in Crystal Reports
Use the Report Wizard to design a report based on up-to-date CSV data.
Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. The CData ODBC Driver for CSV brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on CSV data that refreshes when you run the report.
Connect to CSV Data
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
The DataSource property must be set to a valid local folder name.
Also, specify the IncludeFiles property to work with text files having extensions that differ from .csv, .tab, or .txt. Specify multiple file extensions in a comma-separated list. You can also set Extended Properties compatible with the Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0 driver. Alternatively, you can provide the format of text files in a Schema.ini file.
Set UseRowNumbers to true if you are deleting or updating in CSV. This will create a new column with the name RowNumber which will be used as key for that table.
When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
You can then follow the procedure below to use the Report Wizard to create the CSV connection.
In a new report, click Create New Connection -> ODBC.
- In the resulting wizard, click Select Data Source and select the DSN in the Data Source Name menu.
Design a Report
After adding a ODBC connection to CSV, you can then use the Report Wizard to add CSV data to your report.
- Click File -> New -> Standard Report.
- Expand the ODBC node under Create New Connection and double-click Make a New Connection.
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Configure the data source by selecting the tables and fields needed in the report. This example uses the City and TotalDue columns from the Customer table.
You can then configure grouping, sorting, and summaries. For example, this article groups on City and summarizes on TotalDue. See the following section to use the aggregate and summary to create a chart.
Create a Chart
After selecting a column to group by, the Standard Report Creation Wizard presents the option to create a chart. Follow the steps below to create a chart that aggregates the values in the City column.
- In the Standard Report Creation Wizard, select the Bar Chart option and select the column you grouped by, City in this example, in the On Change Of menu.
- In the Show Summary menu, select the summary you created.
- Select filters and a template, as needed, to finish the wizard.
Preview the finished report to view the chart, populated with your data. If you want to filter out null values, use a SelectionFormula.

Working with Remote Data
To ensure that you see updates to volatile data, click File and clear the "Save Data with Report" option. As you interact with the report, for example, drilling down to hidden details, Crystal Reports executes SQL queries to retrieve the data needed to display the report. To reload data you have already retrieved, refresh or rerun the report.
You can offload processing onto the driver by hiding details elements and enabling server-side grouping. To do this, you will need to have selected a column to group on in the report creation wizard.
- Click File -> Report Options and select the Perform Grouping On Server option.
- Click Report -> Section Expert and select the Details section of your report. Select the Hide (Drill-Down OK) option.
When you preview your report with the hidden details, Crystal Reports executes a GROUP BY query. When you double-click a column in the chart to drill down to details, Crystal Reports executes a SELECT WHERE query that decreases load times by retrieving only the data needed.