Sorting a report

[zab]

Hello everyone

I am building a report, mostly form my Products Line Items.

It look like this

Sub-summary - the Model of reference

Sub-summary - Sector

Sub-summary - Group - Price

Sub-summary - Item - Qty - Price

Now what I want to know, is it possible (by some relatonship or sort calculation) to have a certain group that will display only the total and not the items (when it come from the same Line Item table).

For example: I need to see all the items of the Sector: Electricity & plumbing (and the 2 groups, Electricity and Plumbing). But when it comes to the material to build a floor, I just need to see the group named Floor with the total price but none of the items that it contains.

BTW is there a topic or website that discuss how to build a nice report, some kind of a "how to" to Report... I'm looking in the bible, there is not much on this and I can't find anything good on the web.

Thank you very much for your help.

Isa

[comment]

It's sort of possible, though not quite straightforward: you could define a calculation field along the lines of =

Case ( ; Field1 & Char(9) & Field2 & Char(9) & Field3 )

Place the calculation field (and only the calculation field) in the Body part and set it to slide up, also reducing the size of the enclosing part.

[zab]

I tried it. It doesn't seem to summarize that way. (count each item and update the qty). I'll keep trying.

What is Char(9) ?

[comment]

Char (9) is the tab character. I don't see what summarizing has to do with this: summaries go into the sub-summary part, which is the same for all groups. The idea here is to calculate the content of the body part only for selected groups.

[zab]

I'm back at it again.

The thing is I need sub summary part because the same item can appear many times so I want it to be summarized.

I'll give it some more time, but now I'm thinking maybe I should make a new table... but it doesn't feel logical to do it that way.

Is there a way to say if the category is empty, don't show the items in the next sub summary field?

[comment]

I am afraid you have lost me: I thought you wanted a sub-summary for EVERY category, with only SOME categories itemized. This would be achieved by having BOTH a sub-summary part and a body part, but placing only a calculation field in the body part. If the category is not marked for itemization, the calculation would return empty, and the body part in that section would shrink to nothing.

Is there a way to say if the category is empty, don't show the items in the next sub summary field?

Not sure what that means. If there are no items in a category, there won't be a sub-summary part for it (and of course, no items either).

[zab]

I found a way

I used the case as you suggested. I created a new calculation field int he Product Line Ite, called Rap_Items to reflect the items as I want them described.

case(

category = "1" ; item; //mirror the title of the Item as shows in the Product Line Item//

category = "2"; "Floor"; //alternated title that will be the same for all items of this category//

"")

Then I use that field in a sub summary part in my report.

I have all the items presented as one with summarized price or

I can have each item described one by one.

I'm finishing the details right now (hum! tomorrow maybe), but it works...

WAAAAAA I FEEL GOOD, na na na na na na na

Thank you again for your help.

Isa