Crystal Report Grouping When Variable is Not Present in All Instances

[Breaktackle]

I have a question regarding the grouping mechanism in Crystal Reports. The data table that I am using contains a date in which a revision was made to a given job. I wish to incorporate this date into a report that consists of various jobs. The problem I am having is that if I am to group the data in a way to sort the data so only the most recent date is shown (this is my intention) any job that has NOT had a revision made to it is thrown out of the report (it doesn't fall under the category of having this criteria in order to sort it). Is there a way I can keep the non-applicable jobs in the report, in the same order? I am not that familiar with Crystal Reports but could there be some sort of function to implement that ignores the fact that the given job does not have a date attached, and then proceed to apply this formula to the next job in sequence? I would like to have "not applicable" or something along these lines to display when a date does not exist in the data.

 

[lbass]

This sounds like you might have a linking problem, since grouping on the field should at a minimum create a null group for records that don't have the date. You should be linking FROM the table that contains all records TO the table the contains the revision date, using a left outer join. Then create a formula to group on:

if isnull({table.revisiondate}) then
date(0,0,0) else
{table.revisiondate}

In the group expert->options->customize groupname->use a formula->x+2, enter:

if isnull({table.revisiondate}) then
"Not Applicable" else
totext({table.revisiondate},"MM/dd/yyyy")

-LB

 

[Breaktackle]

Thank you very much for the help! After I changed the linking to a "left outer join" then all my report data came back! I only needed to use the second part of your answer in a separate formula and then dragged that into the report. Worked flawlessly! Thanks again!

 

[lbass]

The second formula will work okay as long as the data doesn't cross years. The reason I suggested grouping on the first formula is that it would always sort correctly.

-LB