The .need statement allows you to ensure that groups of text lines are not broken across pages of the report. Report-Writer performs conditional page breaks, to keep the specified or variable‑specified lengths of text blocks together. You can use this statement to make sure that Report-Writer keeps all lines of text in the headers, and such, on the same page. For examples of placing the .need statement, see the appendix "Report-Writer Report Examples."

Report-Writer evaluates any expressions used as parameters to the .need statement during runtime.