## Chapter 3 Retrieving Data

After you create a BIRT data source, you create a data set to specify what data to retrieve from the data source. This chapter discusses the different types of data sets that you create using the graphical tools in BIRT Report Designer: SQL SELECT Query, SQL Stored Procedure Query, Flat File, and XML. Though specific tasks for defining a data set vary depending on the data source type that you are using, the general steps are:

- Defining the name and type of the data set.
- Describing what data to retrieve:

- For JDBC data sources that use a SQL SELECT query or stored procedure, you define the query or procedure.
- For data sources that use files or URLs, such as XML or flat file data sources, you provide a URL or file location and map the data into a relational structure of tables and columns.

- Defining any computed fields that you want to use in the data set.
- Defining filters to limit the data that the data set returns to the report.
- Defining parameters to specify, at run time, the data to retrieve from the data source.