How does sorting work?

The index (10) refers to the 10th sorting criteria in the report

When you say there are 21 sort fields and 4 groups, do you really have 21 fields under the sort expert?

Crystal first sorts the data by the groups (so it can be broken out into the groups) then sorts on the first sort field provided additional sort fields then provide further sorting but only when previous sorts resulted in 2 or more records with the same value.

Think of it like a phone book.

Generally the first grouping is the phone company office
If there are several cities/towns near each other the book can group by CITY or simply combine them together
The next group is First Letter of the last name
First sort field - Last Name
Next sort field - First Name
Next sort field - Middle Initial
From there you could sort by address or phone number

If you have that many sort fields, I think you want to delete most of them and use a single sort field that is the one used most of the time

To change a sort field

                For k = 1 To crRpt.Database.Tables.Count
                      For m = 1 To crRpt.Database.Tables(k).Fields.Count
                            If (UCase$(crRpt.Database.Tables(k).Fields(m).Name) = _
                                                                                UCase$("YourFIeldName")) Then
                                crRpt.RecordSortFields(j).Field = crRpt.Database.Tables(k).Fields(m)
                                crRpt.RecordSortFields(j).SortDirection = crAscendingOrder
                       '         crRpt.RecordSortFields(j).SortDirection = crDescendingOrder
                            End If
                        Next m
                Next k

mlmcc

Hi mlmcc, thanks for that...

but when I run the line:
crRpt.RecordSortFields(j).Field = crRpt.Database.Tables(k).Fields(m)

I get the error:
"The sorting already exists"

So the line is really:
crRpt.RecordSortFields(4).Field = crRpt.Database.Tables(0).Fields(10)
as there is 4 group so the first sort field is at index 4, and (e.g.) the field i want to sort by is at index 10 of table 0.

All the fields in my table are already in my DataDefinition.SortFields collection so if I set the one i want to sort to index 4 it tells me "The sorting already exists".... i.e. that field is already in my collection at e.g. index 15 and if I try set it to index 4 it will exist in two places!

Am i missing something here?

Thanks for the help, i really appreciate it, i've been at this for ages!!!!

ok mlmcc, i think that is the solution i'll have to take.

I'll implement it when i get to work tomorrow.

Can i just run one thing past you though? ->

Do you use CR with Visual Studio? If no then don't worry about the next bit.

With VS2003 you do not have to clear all the sort fields. You can always set the field you want to sort to the first sort field index hence sorting on the field you want. So it is actually possible to have index 0 and 1 and etc... all using the same sort field. i.e. you can run the code:
ctlReportDocument.DataDefinition.SortFields(0).Field = ctlReportDocument.Database.Tables(0).Fields(22)
ctlReportDocument.DataDefinition.SortFields(1).Field = ctlReportDocument.Database.Tables(0).Fields(22)
and it won't crash.

But with VS2005 the above code will crash with "the sorting already exists"

have you found this yourself?

Again thanks mlmcc, i'll close the Q tomorrow

I don't recall.  I use VS 6 (VB 6) the pre .Net versions.  There were a couple of reports where the users wanted the ability to select the sort fields.  They could choose 3 fields and my code reset all the sort fields I had built into the report so I am not sure if I ever had that situation where the sort field already existed.

Interesting that it works with 2003 but not 2005.  Are you using the same version of Crystal? Or are you using CR.Net 2003 and .Net 2005?  If the versions of Crystal are different then maybe it is the Crystal pieces that catch the problem.

mlmcc

using CR.NET 2005 with VB2005....

It's a strange one alright but the thing that bugs me is that I cannot find anyone that had the same problem or any documentation for it..

oh, well... thanks a lot for the help mlmcc,

Laters,

Glad i could help

mlmcc