Footing is the bottom half of the page story. Titles shout the report name; headings name columns; detail lines fill the middle; footings close the section with totals, end notes, or group summaries. In Easytrieve Report Generator practice, those closing bands usually come from CONTROL break processing and FINAL grand totals—not from a TITLE-like FOOTING statement you copy on every beginner sample. Shops still say "put a footing under each department" meaning print the DEPT total line after the last employee in that department. Report procedures such as AFTER-BREAK and AFTER-LINE let advanced programs customize what happens when breaks or lines complete. This page teaches footing as a design concept: where bottom content comes from, how CONTROL and SUM create summary footings, how FINAL closes the report, how PAGESIZE interacts with bottom lines, how AFTER-BREAK differs from TITLE, and how to avoid confusing page footers with mid-report group totals.
Spreadsheet users expect a footer row. COBOL Report Writer had footing groups. Easytrieve gives you summary lines driven by CONTROL. When someone asks for a footing, translate the request: Do they want a total after each department? A grand total on the last page? A literal "END OF REPORT" note? Confidential marking on every page bottom? Each maps to different tools— CONTROL/SUM, FINAL, DISPLAY after the job, or special printer features—not always one keyword.
| What they want | Typical tool | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Total after each DEPT | CONTROL DEPT + SUM | Mid-report group footing |
| Grand total last page | FINAL totals | End-of-report footing |
| Custom text at break | AFTER-BREAK PROC | Advanced customization |
| Note after each detail | AFTER-LINE PROC | Use sparingly |
| Page banner only | TITLE | Top, not footing |
123456REPORT DEPT-PAY LINESIZE 132 SEQUENCE DEPT EMP# CONTROL DEPT TITLE 01 'PAY BY DEPARTMENT' LINE 01 DEPT EMP# NAME GROSS SUM GROSS
After the last employee in department 100, Easytrieve prints a total line for GROSS—that line is the department footing. Then department 200 detail begins. SEQUENCE keeps departments together so the footing appears once per real group. Without order, footings fragment whenever DEPT flickers between values. SUM GROSS limits which quantitative fields contribute to that footing line.
FINAL processing runs after the last detail and the last control break. Grand totals for the whole report print here—the ultimate footing. CONTROL options related to FINAL govern whether those totals print and how page breaks behave around them. A report with CONTROL but no interest in grand totals still needs clear FINAL expectations so you do not surprise users with an extra summary page. Simple listings without CONTROL have no automatic total footing unless you compute your own W totals and PRINT a special summary report or DISPLAY after the loop.
12345678910REPORT R1 SEQUENCE DEPT CONTROL DEPT TITLE 01 'CUSTOM BREAK FOOTING EXAMPLE' LINE 01 DEPT EMP# GROSS SUM GROSS AFTER-BREAK. PROC * custom logic allowed for your release at break time END-PROC
AFTER-BREAK. PROC runs in the break context so you can extend standard total footings when SUM lines alone are not enough—extra annotations, special DISPLAY, or coordinated working-storage flags. AFTER-LINE ties to detail line events. Both are report procedures with restrictions on which statements are valid; they are not a free-form second JOB. Prefer standard CONTROL/SUM for beginners and add procedures only when the default footing line is insufficient.
PAGESIZE counts body lines available on a page. Titles, headings, detail, break totals, and FINAL lines all consume space. If PAGESIZE is tight, a department footing may push to the next page alone—looking like a stranded footer. Widen PAGESIZE, reduce TITLE lines, or use NEWPAGE on CONTROL so each group starts cleanly. Test with a department that has one employee and another with hundreds to see footing placement under stress.
A true page footer repeats on every physical page (page number at bottom, "Confidential"). Easytrieve commonly puts page numbers on TITLE 01 instead of a bottom footer. Group footings appear only when data groups end. When users ask for both, clarify: page identity often stays in TITLE; money totals stay in CONTROL footings. Bottom-only page text may need printer options, second LINE tricks, or site-specific extensions—document what your shop supports rather than inventing a FOOTING statement that is not in your Language Reference.
12345REPORT R2 SEQUENCE DIV DEPT EMP# CONTROL DIV DEPT LINE 01 DIV DEPT EMP# GROSS SUM GROSS
DEPT footing prints when department changes; DIV footing prints when division changes (after rolling up departments). Nested footings read like outline totals. Teach readers the indentation or labeling on total lines so they know which footing level they see. FINAL still sits under everything as the report footing.
Not every report needs totals. A name-and-address list may end after the last LINE with only TITLE repeating each page. Adding CONTROL without a business need creates empty or confusing total lines. Conversely, money reports without footings force users to add on calculators—usually wrong. Match footing design to the question the report answers.
Imagine counting toys by color. After all the red toys, you write "Red total: 10" at the bottom of that pile—that is a group footing. After every color, you write "All toys: 40"— that is the FINAL report footing. The title on the paper says Toy Count Report at the top. The footing is the counting note at the bottom of each pile, not the title.
1. In classic Easytrieve report writing, bottom summaries most often come from:
2. AFTER-BREAK procedures run:
3. TITLE sits at the ___ of the page; footing content sits toward the ___.
4. PAGESIZE too small for titles, headings, detail, and totals can cause:
5. FINAL on CONTROL relates to footing because it: