Interactive Report vs Interactive Grid in Oracle APEX: which one to use

Most Oracle APEX pages that show data use one of two region types: an Interactive Report or an Interactive Grid. They look alike at first. Both show rows in a table, both have a search bar and an Actions menu, and both let end users save their own layouts. The difference is what the user can do with the rows, and that decides which one a page should use.

This guide explains each, builds both on the same table so you can compare them, and ends with a simple rule for choosing. It is also one of the most common APEX interview questions.

The short answer

• Interactive Report: read-only. Users search, filter, sort, group, chart and download the data, but they do not change it on the report. To edit a row they open a form, usually from a link on each row.
• Interactive Grid: can be read-only or editable. When editing is on, users change values in the cells, add and delete rows, and save several changes at once, like a spreadsheet.

If people only need to look at and analyse the data, use an Interactive Report. If they need to edit many rows quickly on one page, use an Interactive Grid.

What an Interactive Report gives you

An Interactive Report is built from a SQL query or a table. Without any code, the end user gets:

• Search across all columns, or one column, from the search bar
• Actions menu to choose columns, add filters, set rows per page, sort, add a control break, highlight rows that match a condition, add computed columns and aggregates
• Chart, Group By and Pivot views of the same data
• Download, for example as CSV
• Saved reports: a user can save their filters and layout under a name and come back to it

Each row usually has a link column that opens a form page for that row. That is the pattern the Create Application wizard builds when you add an Interactive Report with Include Form ticked: the report lists the rows, the form edits one row at a time.

Interactive Reports are simple to build and hard to break. Because nobody edits on the report itself, there is no row processing to set up.

What an Interactive Grid gives you

An Interactive Grid has most of the same reporting features: search, an Actions menu, filters, sorting, control breaks, highlights, aggregates, charts, downloads and saved reports. On top of that, users can work with the columns directly: resize them, drag them into a new order and freeze them.

The big difference is editing. When the grid is editable:

• users click a cell and type a new value
• the Add Row button inserts a blank row
• rows can be selected and deleted from the row actions menu
• nothing is written to the database until the user clicks Save, which saves all their changes together

Interactive Grids also suit master-detail pages, where a grid of detail rows sits under the selected master row, for example order lines under an order.

One thing an Interactive Report has that an Interactive Grid does not is the Pivot view. If users need to pivot the data, that is a point for the report.

Try both on a practice instance

You need an APEX workspace and a table with some rows. If you built the COURSES table from our first APEX app guide, use that. Otherwise, any table with a primary key works.

Build the Interactive Report

1. In App Builder, open your application and click Create Page.
2. Choose Interactive Report, name the page Courses Report, and pick your table as the source.
3. Create the page and run it.
4. In the running page, open Actions and try a filter, a highlight and a Group By. Then use Actions > Report > Save Report to save the layout under your own name.

Notice that you cannot change a value in the report itself.

Build the Interactive Grid

1. Back in App Builder, click Create Page again and choose Interactive Grid.
2. Name the page Courses Grid, pick the same table, and turn on the option to make it editable.
3. Create the page and run it.
4. Click a cell, change a value, add a row with Add Row, and click Save.

Now open the Courses Grid page in Page Designer. Two things are worth looking at:

• Select the grid region and look at its Attributes. The Edit section is where editing is enabled, and where you choose whether users may add, update and delete rows.
• Open the Processing tab. The wizard added an Interactive Grid - Automatic Row Processing (DML) process. That is what writes the user's changes to the table when they click Save.

An editable grid needs a way to identify each row, normally the table's primary key. If your table has no primary key, add one before making the grid editable.

Which one to choose

Ask what the user will do on the page.

The user needs to...	Use
Look up and analyse records, with filters and downloads	Interactive Report
Pivot the data	Interactive Report
Edit one record at a time with validations and a full form	Interactive Report with a form page
Update many rows quickly, like a spreadsheet	Interactive Grid (editable)
Edit detail rows under a selected master row	Interactive Grid

A few practical points help too:

• Start with an Interactive Report when in doubt. It is simpler, and a form page gives you more room for validations, help text and longer fields than a cell in a grid.
• Use a grid for bulk edits that people really do in bulk, such as updating statuses, quantities or rates across many rows.
• Keep editable grids small and focused. A grid with a handful of editable columns is easy to use; a grid with thirty editable columns is not.

What interviewers ask

Expect questions like these in APEX interviews, and answer them from what you built:

• What is the difference between an Interactive Report and an Interactive Grid?
• How do you make an Interactive Grid editable, and what saves the changes?
• How does a user save their own version of a report?
• When would you use a form page instead of editing in a grid?

Being able to say "I built both on the same table, and here is what changed" is far stronger than a memorised answer.

Practise on a real APEX workspace

Reading about the two regions only gets you so far. Building both on your own table, then changing a few settings in Page Designer and running the page again, is what makes the difference stick.

See Oracle APEX practice instance plans →