Report line spacing

[Cheryl Lemire]

I have a client that would like a blank line inserted after every ten detail records are listed. I have absolutely no idea to accomplish this. Any ideas?

The report is broken down into groups and the detail section is currently displaying with single spacing. It is the detail section where I need to have an extra blank line inserted after every 10th record.

Thanks

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Report line spacing

This rings a bell. Check newsletter, www.learn alpha.com, and of course this msg board.

Off hand I'd think in terms of a conditional object that would have two layers. One would be empty, the other containing the line. Set the condition expression so that it is true every 10 records. I'd think the MOD() function would be useful there. Were it not for your groups I'd think MRECNO() could be used to get a row counter, and perhaps it can. I'm thinking if the row count divided by ten has a remainder of zero you show the line. Otherwise you don't. With groups they probably want to reset the beginning row count with each group break, so I'm not sure how to do that, but you'll think of something! Oh, the CO needs to be set to shrink if empty.

-- tom

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

Thanks for the ideas Tom. I found:

http://www.learn alpha.com/fancyrepo...ncyreports.htm

That may do what the client needs.

Thanks again.

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

I found two issues with this idea and had to remove the break in 10 records group.

Is there a way to accomplish this task without having the repeating detail header repeat on the break after every 10 records?

Having the break in 10 record group set up also caused my report footer to print above my last group footer in the report :(

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Report line spacing

Cheryl,

Brute force: Copy the records to a temp table. Insert new records with blank fields (other than field required for grouping) every 10 records. Base report on the temp table.

-- tom

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

Although I am not a big fan of 'brute force' LOL, I am not sure I could even do what you are suggesting as there are several different groups within the report. I don't think I could possibly figure out where my 10th record would end up?

Example: one report has the following group hierachy

Company, cust_po, ship_num, model .... then the detail

Can you guide me as to how I could determine that hierachy so that I could add the blank record after the 10th spot?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Report line spacing

Cheryl, I'm thinking of a single flat table that resembles the composite records Alpha develops in its sets. Populate the table, one row at a time. Grouping the records manually. Insert partially blank rows when needed. Open the default browse for your set to see what I'm talking about. This is a big project. Not sure the cost will outweigh the perceived benefit.

Shifting gears...
I wonder if a conditional object that contains only a blank row might be used? The MOD() of the running count divided by 10 might be an easy way to tell the report layout when the CO should be displayed. You'd condition the CO so that if the result of MOD() is zero you display the blank line, otherwise you don't.

-- tom

[G Gabriel]

Re: Report line spacing

Cheryl/Tom:

I haven't followed this thread nor read all replies but it seems like an interesting unique challenge.

Here is a very simple way to accomplish this.

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

And what is your simple way Gabe?

[G Gabriel]

Re: Report line spacing

Sorry, forgot to attach the zip file while responding to another thread.
The zip file has few other things not relevant to your thread. Go to Reports, print "Cheryl"

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

Thanks Gabe. The rtf object with a calculated field gave me the results that the client was looking for.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Report line spacing

What the heck!........... let's go all the way..!

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

Thanks for the effort Gabe, but my client does not want color coding :)

[smrogers]

Re: Report line spacing

Would some kind soul mind explaining how that worked? I downloaded the example database, but alas, this poor neophyte just can't figure it all out... It's something I would also find very useful, and and probably many others. I checked out the method Dr. Wayne used, but I don't like the repeating header. Thanks!

[Cheryl Lemire]

Re: Report line spacing

Hi Shawn,

Right click on the report and open it in design mode. What Gabe did was create an rtf object and place the calculated field into that object.

blank = if(mod(run_count(Item),10)=0,crlf(2),"")

From the help files:

Remainder as N = MOD( Numerator as N, Denominator as N )
MOD() returns the remainder of the numerator after being divided by the denominator.

CRLF( [ Count as N ] )
The CRLF() function inserts the carriage return and line feed characters into a string.

Gabe's sample places the blank line after 10 records. He is calculating a running count of the 'Item' field. When that count is 10 the result of the mod is = 0, so the crlf(2) inserts two carriage returns giving us a blank line. If the item running count is anything but 10, then the "" is used which simply returns a null value without any carriage returns.

If you want the blank line after 5 or 15 or 20 records, replace the 10 in the above sample with the number of records you want the blank line to be inserted after.

If you have groupings, change the expression for the group that you want the running count in. For one of my reports, the expression looks like this:

blank = if(mod(run_count(Serial_Num,GRP->Model),[COLOR=Red]10[/COLOR])=0,crlf(2),"")

My detail section where I need the blank line inserted after 10 records is under the group name of Model. If you review the calculated field it is doing the following:

run_count(Serial_Num,GRP->Model) - this is giving us a running count of the records based on the serial_num field in the model group. The mod is dividing the result of the running count value by 10 ... see the red above.

?mod(1,10)
= 1

?mod(2,10)
= 2

?mod(10,10)
= 0

The if statement is saying that if the result is equal to '0', then crlf(2), else ""

So, when my running count is the 10th record, the value will equal 0 and the crlf(2) will insert two carriage returns providing us with a blank line. When the record number is 1-9, then the =0 is false, and the expression will simply give a null value "".

I hope that helped.