Crosstab - sorting columns non-alphabetically

[mehlsl]

Hello --

I could not find postings on this subject; please pardon the duplication if they exist.

How do I print crosstab column headings in a specific (non-alphabetic order)?

Our crosstab columns are sales regions to be printed in this order:
Asia, Japan, EMEA, US+Canada, and Other Americas.

I set up a (sorting) formula to assign a text string to each region: "01", "02", etc., used that for grouping (with sales region as the second field), and intended to suppress printing the sorting formula. The second field in the column title is the sales region name described above.

Problem: an extra column and row (both empty) appear in the crosstab, representing the suppressed formula field. I can not suppress them.

What do people suggest as the best way to achieve the layout I want?

Thanks for any help.

Larry Mehl

 

[Katy44]

What version of Crystal are you using? I've only used this in 9 and 10.
If you go to the cross-tab expert and then choose your Columns field (which should be the sales regions).
Highlight it, and click the Group Options button below.
Leave the "When printed the records will be sorted and grouped by..." bit alone, but change the box underneath to "In specified order".
Click "New" and give the first Group name you want (I assume "Asia"). You need to use the fields below to set the criteria "Where sales region='Asia'". Click OK.
Repeat this for each sales region. The benefits are that when you go back to the "Cross-tab Group options" screen, you can order the groups exactly as you want, and this is the order they will be printed.
Hope this has helped, let me know if I haven't understood the problem!

 

[mehlsl]

Katy --

Thanks. I was hoping for a solution that worked with the data, and did not require hard-coding values in the report.

However, since there are only a few values for Region it will work fine.

Larry