value list summary at end of a report

[maintitle]

I need help in creating a user defined value list summary at the end of a report.

I am a film composer and am creating a database that tracks pieces of music I write for a given film. Each record in the database is a cue or singular piece of music. Within the data base there is a user defined value list that allows me to enter different categories for each of the pieces of music (i.e. suspense, action, love, etc). The value list changes for each film.

The report I am creating shows all the records in the database (all the pieces of music I need to write for the film). At the end of the report I would like to summarize how many of the pieces fall into each of the categories defined by the value list, as well as the total time for each of the categories. For example:

Suspense: 5 cues 11 minutes of music

Action: 3 cues 9 minutes of music

Love: 6 cues 12 minutes of music

Using a sub-summary in the layout I can summarize each category in the value list by using the appropriate sort, however I want to show all the records in the body of the report using a different sort (the order they appear in the film) with the category value list summaries appearing at the end of the report without any records between them.

Hopefully my description makes sense. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Thank you.

[LiveOak]

The usual way to print a "summary of anything, anywhere in the report" is to "summarize" the data into global field(s), then display the global field on the report. The actual counting is done using scripts. These scripts may be fairly simple or quite complex depending upon what you are counting.

-bd

[maintitle]

Thanks. Can you point me to any examples or resources that may help me to better understand this. I'm certain it's a concept that's fairly simple and is used in many databases. However, I'm not understanding the specifics of how it's accomplished. Thanks again.

[LiveOak]

I'm not sure I know of where to get a nice small canned example. Most of the stuff we've done is pretty complex by the nature of the reports desired. The basic concept is just to create a global text field, put the stuff you want to print in it, and place it where you want it in the report.

The "how to" of summarizing the data to put in the golbal field:

Pencils 4 boxes counted

Pens 22 counted

Erasers 4 counted

depends upon the exact structure of the file involved.

One example, say I have file which has an inventory of fruit cold stored in a warehouse. I want to count not the number of inventory items, quantity, etc. (the easy stuff), BUT I want to count the number of different types of fruit. One way to do this is to create a report with a header, subsummary part by fruit type and a footer. Set the subsummary part for a page break after each occurrence (this is the trick, to make page count equal to type count). This causes one page per fruit TYPE in the report. Count of types is then accomplished by:

Go to Layout (MySubsummaryLayoutMentionedAbove)

Sort (restore) <-- sort by fruit type

Enter Preview Mode []

Go to Record/Request/Page [last]

SetField (gTypeCount, Status(CurrentPageNumber))

Enter Browse Mode

Go to Layout (original layout)

# Now to build your display global for the header, footer or whatever of your eventual report

SetField(gSummaryDisplay, "I found " & gTypeCount & " types of fruit in the warehouse")

Hope this is of some help, this type of counting can go from very simple to quite complex. Sorry I don't have a ready stock of examples, we kind of make them up as we go along.

-bd