Hour 6. Selecting and Grouping Data

As introduced in the previous hour, the Field Explorer provides a quick and easy way to select and display fields on your report and then easily drag and drop them onto the Report Design area. In addition to choosing existing fields from your selected data sources, the Field Explorer enables you to create calculated (formula) fields, parameter fields, running total fields, group summary fields, as well as choose from a predefined set of default special fields. These additional objects enable a great deal of flexibility and power in the information you will deliver through the reports you will create.

In addition to selecting the fields that will make up the raw content for a report, it is often beneficial to group base-level data by country, region, or product line. Grouping the data facilitates relevant business user analysis and enables meaningful summarizations in your reports. Crystal Reports provides easy-to-use grouping functionality that enables nested groups, hierarchical grouping, and drill-down analysis into the different levels of grouping selected.

In this hour, the following will be covered:

• Understanding the different types of field objects

• How to add grouping to your reports

• How to add multiple groups to your report and re-order them

• Hierarchical Grouping

• Creating and using drill-down in your reports

• Hiding and suppressing detail records in your reports