The invention discloses a report display engine based on metadata. By defining the metadata, data reading logic, constraint and interface layout during the operation are analyzed. The metadata include a report header and a report field definition. The report engine determines data sources, report titles, the file outputting type and other main information by reading the report header, then integrates the report field definition to search and filter the data during operation and returns to a result set, and finally, based on the report header and the report field definition, determines the report display mode and outputs the same to the clients. The report display engine has the advantages that the standard metadata model is defined, flexible configuration is characterized, and the further metadata expanding is supported; at the premise that the maintainability is guaranteed, the report yield is increased, fast development is supported, and adaptability to the report system requiring frequent changes is achieved.