Chapter 10: Understanding Formulas

Overview

Mention the word "mathematics," and most people become rigid with tension and terror (myself being no exception). Don't feel bad if you have these fears; you're not alone.

I hate to be the one to deliver bad news, but as you propel your-self further down the road of report development, you'll eventually find yourself needing to revisit the world of mathematics. Report development is a form of programming. And programming is truly nothing more than writing equations.

But there's good news. Crystal Reports takes into consideration that most users aren't mathematical wizards or programmers by trade. Crystal Reports contains a number of easy-to-use tools that makes programming in Crystal Reports painless. You might even find it kind of fun.

In this chapter, we discuss adding formulas to your reports. We learn not only what formulas are and the situations for which they're used in reports, but you should also come away equipped with some programming knowledge to get you through most programming obstacles you should run into.

If only high school algebra had been this easy!