Record selection

Specifying

records/groups to be included

Setting up

record selection

When you select a field to appear on your report, field values from every record in the active table(s) are printed by default. In many cases, you may not want to include all the values, but only a subset of those values. For example, you may want to:

●include records only for a specific group of customers,

●include records for a specific range of account numbers out of the total number of records in the database, or

●include values from only those records that fall within a particular date range.

You can select records in one of two ways:

1.by using the Select Expert, or

2.by using the Formula Language.

USING THE SELECT EXPERT

Seagate Crystal Reports includes a very sophisticated formula language that you can use to specify virtually any kind of record selection that you want. Many times, however, you may not need the flexibility in record selection that the formula language provides. The Select Expert is designed for times like that.

NOTE: You can use the Select Expert to set up record selection and group selection requests. When you select either a group name or a summary field, the program knows that the selection criteria you set up is intended for group selection. In all other cases, the program knows that you are setting up record selection.

The Select Expert makes it easy to specify the records you want included in your report. You simply highlight the field that you want to base your selection on and then set the selection criteria. If you want to set additional criteria for the selected field or if you want to base record selection on additional fields, the Select Expert provides the tools you need to do it. See How to set up record selection using the Select Expert, Page 263, and search for Select Expert in Seagate Crystal Reports online Help.

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Using the Expert you can set up simple record selection requests:

●customers from Arizona,

●orders in the first quarter, or

●sales over $10,000.

You can also use it to set up some very sophisticated requests:

●customers whose names start with “A”, “M”, or “S”, or

●customers from California or Florida who ordered in July.

These are all range limit requests. One or more constants define the range. The program compares the field value in each record to the constant(s) and rejects records with values outside the range. The report is thus limited to values within the range. The Select Expert handles requests like this with ease.

NOTE: If you want to create a range limit request based on part of a field value, you are limited as to what you can do in the Select Expert.

You can set up all of these kinds of record selection requests without any previous knowledge of the formula language.

NOTE: You can use the formula language from within the Select Expert if you wish, but that masks its main purpose. The Select Expert’s purpose is to create powerful record selection requests using simple point-and-click processes.

USING THE FORMULA LANGUAGE

If you are planning to create a selection formula using the formula language, you can go directly to the appropriate Selection Formula Editor using the EDIT SELECTION FORMULA command on the Report menu. Choose either the RECORD or GROUP command from the submenu when it appears.

When you are in the Selection Formula Editor, you can build your selection request using fields, functions, operators, and other formulas. Your only restriction is that the resulting formula must be Boolean, that is, it must return either a True or False value.

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251

Related Topics

For complete instructions on creating formulas, see Formulas 101, Page 321.

For sample record and group selection templates, see Record selection formula templates, Page 256, and How to use record/group selection templates, Page 266.

Search the Record/Group Selection Templates topic in Seagate Crystal Reports online Help.

DETERMINING WHAT FIELD(S) TO USE

When you select records, you are basing your report only on those records that meet some conditions that you set. You base those conditions on what kind of information you want in your finished report.

Assume, for example, that you want a report that only shows California data. Your challenge is to find the best way to identify those records that come from California.

●If the table that you are using for your report has a State field or a Region field, you can specify in your request that the program use only those records where the value in the state field is equal to California (Region is equal to CA). This is clearly the easiest way.

●If the table does not have a State field and you still want to report only on California data, there may be a way to identify that data in some other way.

¾If the table has a Postal Code field, you could base you record selection on the range of ZIP codes that apply to California (Postal Code is between n and N).

¾If the table has an Area Code field, you could base your record selection on California Area Codes (Area Code is one of x, y, ....z).

NOTE: If the Area Code is stored in the telephone number field, you will not be able to do this same record selection using the Select Expert based on the Area Code. You will have to create a record selection formula using the formula language to extract the Area Code part of the phone number and then do record selection on that. Search for Subscript in Seagate Crystal Reports online Help.

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Interaction of

the Select

Expert and the

Selection

Formula Editor

Clearly you are not locked into any one method of record selection. Just because you are not locked into it, however, you should still use care when you set up your selection criteria. For details of some of the things you should consider, see Selection performance tips, Page 260.

NOTE: As a general rule, if you can base your record selection on a number of fields (as in this example), select an indexed field instead of a field that is not indexed. See Indexed tables, Page 518.

The Select Expert and the Selection Formula Editor are interactive. That is, record selection criteria you enter via the Select Expert automatically generates a record selection formula that you can review and modify using the Show Formula button in the Select Expert or the Record Selection Formula Editor. Likewise, record selection formulas and modifications to existing record selection formulas automatically update the selection criteria in the Select Expert.

Because of this interactivity, you can use the two facilities together as a tutorial for learning the formula language.

Set up your selection criteria using the Select Expert.

Click the Show Formula button and the Select Expert expands so you can review the formula the program generated based on your criteria.

!Click the Hide Formula button when you are done with your review.

" Change your selection formula using the Select Expert.

#Review the updated formula by clicking the Show Formula button again.

$As you gain confidence and want to make changes using the formula language, click the Formula Editor button in the expanded Select Expert and make your formula changes using all the tools in the Record Selection Formula Editor.

%Review the results of those changes in the Select Expert. Select each field used in the record selection formula and see how the program translates your formula into Expert selection criteria.

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