BO Equal Join vs Outer Join

[chiplarsen]

I am new to Business Objects. I am trying to use it instead of Crystal Reports. I have a query that is only pulling 5 data fields. My test patient does not have data in all 5 of the selected fields. When I run the query, I get no data returned. If I remove the field that contains no data, I get data returned to me. In Crystal, I usually could fix this problem by making my join a left outer join. In BO, is there any other way to do this besides going into the Designer and editing the join in the universe?

Thank you,
Chip

 

[Shoot]

You can edit the SQL of the report by going to Query panel or say Data Provider. But once you make the modifications to the SQL don't forget to check the "Do not Generate SQL before running."

Keep Smiling,
Shoot

 

[BrianTyler]

You can define left outer joins in the universe, so that null will be rturned for the columns in the absent table rows.

However, this can cause problems. If extra conditions are added at query time, they are not used as part of the outer join but will use the null values returned.

For example, if a column on the optional table is compared against a constant, it must be compared against the constant OR NULL