Conditional Object on a Report

[Charles Hoens]

Sorry! I'm really, really confused about the use of Conditional Objects on a report. I've never had to use them in the past and now it seems that there is no way to avoid it in this very simple problem.

Essentially what I have is a report showing various names of products. In a report list for a particular consumer, there is a field showing the budget for each item. Depending on the product, the budget amount needs to be shown in dollars or just the number itself.

I first thought I could do this by using the color conditions in the budget object itself by setting the font color to white on white to blank it out, etc. However, that did not work out too well as the object was obscured somewhat. So, I turned my attention to the conditional object. However, try as I might I just can't seem to get this beast to work! I have read the WIKI and multiple posts, but I still can't get a clear summation of how this object works. I truly wish the WIKI would contain working examples of this.

Here is what I did. I selected the conditional object from the object list and placed it on the report form. I then dragged and dropped the budget object into the CO square. I then right-clicked the CO and made up a filter like substr(contracts->waivername,1,4)="ACTI" which, when true, should show the object in dollar format. But from there, I'm stumped! Do I need to create another object? If so, where does that object get placed? On top of the first object? Or do I need to create another CO with a different budget item in it? Also confusing is the name of the label, etc.

Any info on this would be of great help!

Thanks

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Hi Charles,

You are half way there. All you need now is another condition that is not the same as the first one. If you right click on the CO and select Properties you could then add the new condition there. You might even be able to use the Default. The label of the condition can be the expression itself or some other name that means something to you, for when you might want to go back and edit it.

One other thing you can always do to change the display in a CO, is use a calculated field.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

The AlphaSports sample invoice form has the credit card number and expiration date in a conditional object. You might study that.

A conditional object performs the same on a report as it does on a form.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

OK. Looking over the suggestions! Thanks.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

OK. Thanks Keith and Stan.

I looked over the AlphaSports invoice. I see that it works to either show or hide the field based on the conditional properties.

In order to get what I want, i.e. dollar formatting for the field as opposed to regular formatting, do I create two CO's and then put one over the other, or can I do it with just one? I've experimented with both ideas and can't get it to work.

Thanks.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

The AS example uses a single CO with multiple layers. That's typical. That's probably all you need.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Charles,

Here's a link to the help file topic.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Thanks Tom. I read this over again and again. However I don't think it applies to my situation. I need the CO on a report, not on a form like in the A5 example. I need the CO to determine the information in the detail line and then show the required formatted object. When I try this, all I get is a blank. If I am mistaken or don't understand, just tell me. In the meantime, I'll try and work up and example of what I am trying to do.

Thanks.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Hello!

OK. I made up a quick sample. Please look at the report "Mgr_Contract_Report". You will see the CO in the middle of the report. Again, all I am trying to accomplish here is displaying the object "AllowanceUnits" formatted in dollars when the waivername = "Activity". Other than that, it should display as a regular number.

Thanks.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

TomsReport

- duplicated your report
- stripped out the filter and ordering properties of the report
- deleted your CO
- created a new CO with two layers: IsActivity and NotActivity
- changed the condition expressions you were using.
notice that the expressions differ, your's did not
- dropped the AllowanceUnits field into the NotActivity layer of
the CO
- discovered that could not use the numeric formatting satisfactorily
for the IsActivity layer, so created a new calc field in the report
to show the trimmed string equivalent of the numeric field, formatted
as dollars.

Hope this helps.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Thanks Tom. I'll download this and look it over.

Question: Am I wrong for thinking that this should be a bit simpler?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Yes, I think so. When you get more experience with the conditional object you'll see that it's very powerful and flexible.

You call this a simple thing, but here's what has to happen to produce the result you want:

- the AllowanceUnits field in your table is NUMERIC data
- to display the field value as dollars Alpha must convert it to character data and then format it appropriately (commas, dollar signs etc). Dollar signs are not numeric data. Neither are commas.
- in one object in your report you sometimes want a simple string of characters, without dollar formatting. But sometimes for the same object you want Alpha to use the dollar formatting.
- what you want is "simple" if you use two objects in the report, but you want to use a single object.
- the CO fills the bill by permitting you to define two "layers" either of which will appear on condition

If you didn't use the CO you'd have to preprocess the records in the report, putting the desired string of formatted (or unformatted) characters in a different field, and then use that field in the one object you have in your report. That wastes disk space and is a clumsy workaround in my opinion, but if it floats your boat, add another field to your contracts table and create a table level field rule to define a calculated expression that stores the unformatted string in the new field if not activity, and stores the formatted string in the new field if its activity. Then change the report to drop the CO and replace it with the new field. Make sense?

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Thank Tom. I got it to work. However, what I noticed was that if you play with the objects inside the CO, they will sometimes disappear. If I lengthen them, then they will re-appear. Are you noticing this?

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Question: Am I wrong for thinking that this should be a bit simpler?

It can be.

How about a calc fieldstr = if(waivername = "Activity","$","")+AllowanceUnits
can right justify with padl()
Conditional objects, while quite correctly useful and powerful may be overkill for a simple situation.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Conditional Object on a Report

Ray,

You have a good idea. In the context of his report the expression for the calc field you propose would be:

if(alltrim(contracts->waivername)="Activity","$"+str(contracts->AllowanceUnits,8,2,","),str(contracts->allowanceUnits,8,2,","))

Thanks.

-- tom