## 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 BIRT data sets that you create using 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.