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MECR123

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Group headers in crystal reports

I am writing a crystal report in version 10

The following is some example data

Product Code      Substr(product code ,6)
AAAAAA123      AAAAAA                  
AAAAAA123      AAAAAA
AAAAAA124      AAAAAA
AAAAAA124      AAAAAA
AAAAAA125      AAAAAA
BBBBBB123      BBBBBB
BBBBBB123      BBBBBB
BBBBBB123      BBBBBB
BBBBBB124      BBBBBB

If have taken the first 6 characters of the product code in column 2 above

Column 2 is my group header so my report looks like

      GH1      -      AAAAAA      
      Detail record
      Detail record

      GH1      -      BBBBBB
      Detail record
      Detail record


What I would like is this in my report is a new field which will contain all the items that are part of the product code substr.  This field will display on the GH1 record

      GH1      -      AAAAAA      (AAAAAA123, AAAAAA124, AAAAAA125)
      Detail record
      Detail record

      GH1      -      BBBBBB      (BBBBBB123, BBBBBB124)
      Detail record
      Detail record
Avatar of Mike McCracken
Mike McCracken

You can't get that in the group header except by using a subreport.
Crystal doesn't have the equivalent of the SUM for numbers when applied to strings.

mlmcc
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ASKER

thanks
any idea how would I do it in a subreport ?
Mike
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Avatar of Mike McCracken
Mike McCracken

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You would also need to link your formula that produces the first 6 characters to the subreport, and then use that in the record selection formula in the subreport, so that it only includes those products.

 mlmcc's detail formula assumes that the subreport will only read each product code (AAAAAA123, AAAAAA124, etc.) once.  If the data could include the same product more than once, you'd need to add a check to the detail formula, so that the same code isn't added to the list more than once.

 Also, FWIW, since you're just trying to produce a simple list, you could do this with a simple string variable, instead of an array.  The detail formula would just append each new code to the end of the string, instead of adding it to the array.  That would be a bit "simpler", but, practically speaking, I don't think it makes much difference.  More of a personal preference than anything else.  I just wanted to mention the possibility.

 James
He has it placed in the group header.  A formula like that in the main report would require it to be displayed in the group footer.

mlmcc
If you're referring to the part about using a simple string variable instead of an array, that would still be in a subreport.  I was just saying that he could use formulas in a subreport, like the ones that you described, but append the values to a string, instead of save them in an array.

 James
Sure.  I just find the array easier to cleanup so you don't have the leading or trailing comma to deal with

mlmcc
There's that, but it depends on how you build the string.  You can use something like
if var = "" then {field} else var + ", " + {field}

 And without the array you don't need ArraySize (one less variable), and I've always been a bit concerned about the "cost" of doing ReDim Preserve with every record.  It may be insignificant.  It just seems like something that could be relatively "expensive" when it comes to memory or other "resource" usage (although, now that I think about it, in this context, it may not be much different than making a string variable longer by appending new values to it).

 James