HP Intelligent Management Center Standard Software Platform - Manual (Page 660)

not be difficult, but to find every formula that uses that field could be a difficult
and time consuming task.
To solve this problem, the Report Designer uses aliases to refer to database
tables and files. Aliases are pointers, internal devices that tell the program
where it should look for a database field. Now, if you change the name or
location of the database, you simply reset the pointer. See
Locating files .
The name of the alias does not change, so your formulas are not affected.
The Report Designer looks to the alias for the location and name, goes to
the new location for the database field, and executes the formula without a
problem.
The Report Designer automatically assigns default alias names to database
tables when you first select the table or file. By default, an alias matches the
original name of the table. In databases where the database table is a
separate file (for instance, dBASE), the name of the database file is used
without the file name extension. For example, if you are using the dBASE
database file Company.dbf, the program will assign a default alias name of
Company to the file. You can accept the default alias or assign a new one
to the database table.
660 Crystal Reports 2008 SP3 User's Guide
Understanding Databases 25
Databases overview