Question

Crystal 10, Random Number Generator

Asked by: zaidlicz

I have a report that is written in Crystal which randomly selected employee names from a database. Ideally, I would like to select 5 employees out of a group of 70. The report automatically selects between 12 and 19 employees and I can't figure out how to get it to select only 5. Below is the formula used to select employee names. How can I change it to select a fixed number of employees on a random basis?

Rnd () in [Rnd (.01) to Rnd (.96)]

Rnd () in [Rnd (.01) to Rnd (.96)]

                                  
1:

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Asked On
2009-07-05 at 09:59:03ID24544988
Tags

Crystal

Topic

Crystal Reports Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: peter57rPosted on 2009-07-05 at 10:46:18ID: 24780701

Ypu can't force the selection of just 5 records unless you can create a Top Values sql command that includes a randomisation expression that will do that.

Within CR to get just 5 records into the report you would need to assign a random value to each record, and group the records on employeeid so thatere is just one record per group. Insert a summary to calculate the sum of the random value.
You can then use the TopN groups expert to limit the report to the top 5 groups based on say the sum of the random value for each group.

 

by: zaidliczPosted on 2009-07-05 at 11:02:52ID: 24780760

Thanks for responding.

Please bear with me. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say:
You can then use the TopN groups expert to limit the report to the top 5 groups based on say the sum of the random value for each group.

I took my report and sorted it by TopN where n=5. When I refreshed the report, it printed a column next to all of the employees with a two digit number ranging from 0.15 to .96. What do I need to do after than?

Thanks for your help in advance.


 

by: mlmccPosted on 2009-07-05 at 20:46:22ID: 24782395

What code is selecting the employees?

mlmcc

 

by: peter57rPosted on 2009-07-05 at 23:34:22ID: 24782998

If you have  list of employees with random numbers assigned, then I guess the simplest way from there is just to sort the records on the random value field and then use conditional suppression to supress all records after the first 5.

To do the suppression, go into the Section Expert for the detail line and click the X+2 button next to the suppress option.
Then just enter:

Recordnumber >5

 

by: zaidliczPosted on 2009-07-06 at 06:40:35ID: 31599934

Wow. I never would have figured that out. It works great. Thank you.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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