Chapter 8: Sorting and Grouping Within Your Reports

Overview

Data doesn't always make sense when it's pulled from a database. Just because the correct data appears on a report doesn't mean the report is useful to your users.

For example, how useful is a general ledger report that displays a January 1, 2001 transaction after a September 1, 2001 transaction? Such a report would have your report users pulling their hair out (or worse, pulling your hair out).

To make sense of data, report designers define sorting and grouping functionality within their reports. Sorting is the method of organizing data in some defined order. Grouping is the method of separating records into categorical groups. In this chapter, we learn how to organize your data into logical units.