report order question

[martinwcole]

I have a set:

contracts
-----customers(1 to 1 1st match) [linked to contracts]
----------phones(1 to many)[linked to customers]

the report has in details, e.g.:

contracts->custid, customers->lastname, subreport(phones)

the report prints perfectly, the filter being contracts amountdue > 0

but it will not take an order expression

in design, I can go to the order, and select [customers->lastname-customers->firstname] for the order expression, and it will "evaluate" correctly, but when I save and print, it prints by record number order

then I go back to the orderexpression, and I note that the order expression will not save - it gets removed

if I remove the subreport, the orderexpression will save.

have tried many iterations, even changing the set to:
contracts
-----customers
-----phones

[martinwcole]

RE: report order question

converted to V5, same problems

I also made a set:

customers
-----phones[1 to many]
-----contracts[1 to 1]

customers
-----phones[1 to many]
-----contracts[1 to many]

still won't work

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: report order question

Martin, I think maybe the difficulty is your desired sort sequence uses fields in one table, and your filter expression uses fields in a different one. The report layout cannot alter the linkage specs defined in the set.

I say maybe cause I don't use subreports, and it's possible the presence of the subreport object itself is limiting your sort sequence options.

I could take a look at it this weekend, if you send me the database, or post it here. -- tom

[martinwcole]

RE: report order question

Tom, I think I have figured it out. In general, if you use a subreport in details, like the following

set=
customers
-----phones(1 to many)

details line in report=

custid---fullname---[subreport(phone--phone type)]

the above will print perfectly, but I cannot get the report to accept and save and use an ordering on parent(lastname-firstname)

BUT

if I add a group break, break on custid, and order the group on lastname-firstname and put customer info in the group header and phones in details, (but not as a subreport,) it will order correctly.

The issue seems to be the use of subreports.

The same thing is true in 4.5 and 5.0

Anyway, I found a successful workaround, as usual. Alpha is so flexible, that so far, (a little grumbling notwithstanding,) I have never had a problem that I couldn't find someway around.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: report order question

Martin, I'm glad you have it figured out. Your solution is how I generally approach things. I don't use subreports unless I have two 1:N child tables linked to the same primary table, and need to display data side by side. (As illustrated in the User Guide). Fortunately, this doesn't happen often.

-- tom