Hour 7. Filtering, Sorting, and Summarizing Data

Up until this point, you have created reports that simply projected the rows of data in your database on to the report surface with little manipulation of that data. Any basic database query tool could achieve this. The value of Crystal Reports is its inherent ability to convert rows of raw data into information. Information will reveal something about the data that cannot be found by simply pouring over pages and pages of records. In the last hour, you began to take advantage of the power of Crystal Reports by applying grouping to a report to organize the data into categorical groups. In this hour, you will build on that by learning how to create reports that perform the following actions:

• Filter data based on a given criteria

• Sort data based on field values

• Summarize and subtotal data