The reports we’ve looked at so far consist of selecting all the records from a table and including specific fields from the table in a report. We’ve sorted and grouped this data, used formulas to manipulate the fields to create new values, and used the Crystal Repository in our reports. For all this, though, we’ve taken a relatively simple approach to retrieving data.
Many data retrievals use complex conditions to compare one data value to another data value or pick and choose data based on comparison values. To do this, we need to move beyond the Database Expert and Field Explorer and investigate the additional mechanisms built into Crystal Reports for building more complex data retrievals and filters. In addition, once the data is in Crystal, you can selectively modify how Crystal handles the data using built-in features like the Highlighting Expert and report alerts.
Featured in this chapter:
Coding a WHERE clause with the Select Expert
Modifying selection formulas
Filtering data based on user input with parameter fields
Suppressing information with conditional statements
Highlighting data values with color
Coding and activating conditional report alerts