>Hi,
>
> I heard of Crystal Report long ago. But had not tried it before. The one in the Visual studio 97 had lot of features taken out.
>
> 1)Is it true that it is the best report third party program out there.
> 2)Can it directly access Vfp dbf files and allow my customer to select the kind of report that they want like able to choose which
>fields to include/ Sum data fields/ Do SQL command like Vfp report do without us to do it ourself.
>
> Any suggestion or advise is very much appreciated. Thank you.

I don't know if it's the best thing out there--I don't know if any of us could know if it's the best--however, I've been working with it for years. It will do all you ask (direct reads, SQL commands, choosing report types without having to create from scratch, etc.), and more. I strongly suggest my clients obtain it after I am finished programming a VFP product for them, and I generally teach them how to use it. I (and more importantly, they) love the product.

JR