Formula to print one of 3 fields

[Hoppkins]

I have 3 fields called "Author", "Corp Author" and "Conference".

I'm trying to make a formula where if Author is populated it will print that.

If it's not it will check Corp Author and if thats populated print that, if thats blank then print conference.

I'm using the formula from a working example of another report of:

if OnFirstRecord and isnull ({tAuthor.fSystemKey}) or {tAuthor.fSystemKey}="" then {%Corporate} else
if OnFirstRecord and isnull ({tCorpAuthor.fSystemKey}) or {tCorpAuthor.fSystemKey}="" then {%Conference} else
if OnFirstRecord and isnull ({tConference.fSystemKey}) or {tConference.fSystemKey}="" then {%Author}

Where the %Author etc are "{fn LEFT(tAuthor."fTerm",200)}"

When i try and print this i get nothing printing at all.

Any ideas? Also can anyone explain the "Onfirstrecord" command? I read that it evaluates the statement as true if it's the first record in the report? Im not sure what that means.

Thankyou

 

[Naith]

I'm not sure how to expound on the definition you have already supplied, as you have hit the nail squarely on the head.

By the first record, you are essentially saying the first row. Let's assume that your query returns 500 rows. Your formula is only going to try to evaluate for row number 1, being as you have applied the OnFirstRecord function to every clause.

Take this function out altogether, and your formula will work fine.

Naith

 

[Hoppkins]

Thanks, ive tracked down the problem. One of the fields is behaving oddly, before i try and make the formula work i will need to debug this field.

Thanks for the reply.