Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

[DaveF]

Does anyone know how to hide selected repeating fields in the detail section of a report? I have looked everywhere and cannot find any examples or mention of this. Here is an example of the detail section:

Company Name Invoice# Item Cost
Alpha Corp 000001 001 100
Alpha Corp 000002 002 150
Alpha Corp 000003 003 200
Alpha Corp 000004 004 100
Beta Corp 000005 005 100
Beta Corp 000006 006 150
Beta Corp 000007 007 200


This is what I want:

Company Name Invoice# Item Cost
Alpha Corp 000001 001 100
000002 001 150
000003 003 200
000004 004 200

Beta Corp 000005 005 100
000006 005 150
000007 007 200


I only want to hide the company name if it repeats, but not the Item or Cost.

Thanks

[Al Buchholz]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Create a grouping for company name.

Then you have a group header for company and the detail section for each invoice.

Look at Alphasports' invoice for examples of grouping..

[DaveF]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Thank you! I will give that a try.

[aschone]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Another option is when you drag/drop the field onto the report, the field genie will allow you to suppress repeating values.

[Al Buchholz]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Another option is when you drag/drop the field onto the report, the field genie will allow you to suppress repeating values.

Andrew - good suggestion, but that option won't display the data per the example shown...

It would cause columns to become blank... like this example..

Company Name Invoice# Item Cost
Alpha Corp 000001 001 100
           000002 002 150
           000003 003 200
           000004 004 100
Beta Corp  000005 005 100
           000006 006 150
           000007 007 200

It all depends on what is actually desired...

[DaveF]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

I created a group and put all of the fields I don't want repeated in the group region. I put the fields that do not repeat in the detail region. It is still not coming out the way I want. I want the group fields and first detail line to all appear on the same line. It is closer to what I want, but not exactly. When I created the group, I had to specify a group field. I had to create an expression using the ID and name because the group will sort on the field you select. My query is already sorting the data the way I want, but A5 appears to be sorting again when you create a group. Here is a sample of the output. The last names have been erased.

Example1.jpg

[Al Buchholz]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Another option is when you drag/drop the field onto the report, the field genie will allow you to suppress repeating values.

Andrew - good suggestion, but that option won't display the data per the example shown...

It would cause columns to become blank... like this example..

Company Name Invoice# Item Cost
Alpha Corp 000001 001 100
           000002 002 150
           000003 003 200
           000004 004 100
Beta Corp  000005 005 100
           000006 006 150
           000007 007 200

It all depends on what is actually desired...

I created a group and put all of the fields I don't want repeated in the group region. I put the fields that do not repeat in the detail region. It is still not coming out the way I want. I want the group fields and first detail line to all appear on the same line. It is closer to what I want, but not exactly. When I created the group, I had to specify a group field. I had to create an expression using the ID and name because the group will sort on the field you select. My query is already sorting the data the way I want, but A5 appears to be sorting again when you create a group. Here is a sample of the output. The last names have been erased.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33513[/ATTACH]

So now it sounds like you want the results that Andrew's solution offers..

Your example didn't display as you expected and inferred another solution.

Try Andrew's suggestion. It'll do what you want.

btw, you can turn off the sorting of a group by choosing the group option to use set order....

[DaveF]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

I wasn't sure what that group order option meant. I went into "Group Properties" and changed the "Group order" to "Use set ordering" and now A5 doesn't sort by the group field which is what I want. Thanks!

I still do not understand the part about dragging a field onto the report and the field genie will allow me to suppress repeating values. Here is an example of my report:

Example2.JPG

The fields that should not repeat are in the group region and the fields that should repeat are in the detail region. The only time I see the option to suppress repeating fields is when I drop a field onto the group region. This is what comes up:

Example3.JPG

This dialog does not come up when I drop fields on the detail region. If I put all of my fields in the group region, then I only get one detail line and the rest are hidden.

[aschone]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Make sure the "Bring up field Genie" option is turned on before dragging your field to the report. By default it is off and the Field Genie only appears if you drag to a group or header/footer. By enabling it a field dragged into the detail section will cause the genie to appear as well.

I posted a picture showing where it is located.

Instead of the having the genie generate the calcualted field you can create it yourself. Here is a sample.

blank_dups_Schedule_studentid_for_Grand = blank_duplicate(Schedule->studentid,grp->Grand,grp->detail)

[DaveF]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Thanks Andrew. I'm getting closer. I deleted my group, activated the "Bring up field Genie" and "drug" the four fields that I don't want to repeat to the detail section. I previewed the report and the first line looked great - exactly what I wanted. Then I noticed I was not getting a blank line between each student's last class and the next student's first class so I created a group again and just turned on the footer. Now it looks perfect with the exception of page breaks. Sometimes a student gets split between 2 pages. I don't want to force a page break and keep all of the records together. Instead, I want to repeat printing the ID, name, gender, and grade when there is a page break and then go back to suppressing repeating fields. I don't see anything obvious in the group properties to force these fields to print again on a page break. Perhaps this is controlled in the field Genie. Is there any way to get back to that field genie for a given field already on the report or is it a one time deal?

Also, I'm not sure what you meant about creating my own calculated field for suppressing repeated fields. I just let the Genie do this and it seems to work okay.

Thanks again

[aschone]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Only way I know to get the genie again is to delete the field and re-drag it onto the report. In regards to how you want new pages to appear I do not know how to do that. I always to keep my groups together on a page in order to avoid figuring out how to do what you want to do.

[aschone]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Here is the documentation on Report Calculated fields may prove useful for ya.
http://wiki.alphasoftware.com/Insert...ons+in+Reports

[DaveF]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

Thanks for all of your help Andrew. I will read that wiki page. Sometimes I want to keep all of the records together on the same page, but in most cases I want to continue printing the detail fields and re-print the master fields once on the new page and go back to hiding them for the remainder of the detail fields. If I ever figure it out I will let you know.

On another topic, I just spent about 2 hours dabbling with a "layout table" report for the first time. There is not much documentation and I've seen many message board threads posted by frustrated people. Do you ever use this method and do you find this reporting option usable in it's current state? One thing I have been frustrated with is the report writer ignores all of the property settings for my report header fields (column headings). I've tried setting them to bold, underline or changed the justification and they do not obey these settings. I'm not sure yet if the same is true for a free-form report. The only way I can change the attributes is to change the report header fields to "static HTML" and enter the appropriate mark up. However, the data fields in the detail section do obey the property settings in the Properties Pane.

Thanks again.

[aschone]

Re: Hiding repeating fields in the detail section of a report

I tried the other report options when v11 first came out. When I attempted them they generated errors and totally unusable by me. Figured I could do what I needed to do with the basic report writing UI and have not seen a reason to change to the other methods.