How Can I keep a running total of a field between groups?

[bilowj]

Hi, I have two issues. The first being I was told to create some reports for upper management and I have never used crystal reports. This leads to #2:

To keep this as simple as possible lets say I have a report with three fields grouped by date. so

date 1 ---- date 2 etc...
a1 a2 a3 b1 b2 b3 etc....

a3=a1-a2 which is simple enough however the rest of the report needs to read like:

b3=(b1-b2)+a3
c3=(c1-c2)+b3

I've tried functions, formulas, pretty much everything, all i get is errors and calculations that don't make any sense... Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Thanks!

 

[dgillz]

Please post your exact formulas, real sample data instead of a1, a2, a3, the exact error messages you are getting, current results versus desired results, the version of crystal reports you are using, the database type and concevtivity, etc., etc.

In short we need more info to help you.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[Madawc]

As dgillz says, we need more information. Including your version of Crystal: 8, 8.5, 9 etc.

A running total may be reset for a group, or be continuous for a report. [Reset] is the third section of the options.

There are other sorts of totals besides running totals: summary totals and variables. Right-click on a field and choose Insert to get a choice of Running Total or Summary. Or else use the Field Explorer, the icon that is a grid-like box, to add running totals.

Running totals allow you to do clever things with grouping and formulas. They also accumulate for each line, hence the name. The disadvantage is that they are working out at the same time as the Crystal report formats the line. You cannot test for their values until after the details have been printed. You can show them in the group footer but not the group header, where they will be zero if you are resetting them for each group.

Summary totals are cruder, but are based directly on the data. This means that they can be shown in the header. They can also be used to sort groups, or to suppress them. Suppress a group if it has less than three members, say. They default to 'Grand Total', but also can be for a group.

Variables are user-defined fields. One useful variant are shared variables to pass data from a subreport back to the main report. You can also use variables to show page totals. For normal counting I find running totals or summary totals much easier.

Directly Calculated Totals within a Formula Field can be coded directly, with commands like Sum ({ADV01.Advance}, {ADV01.AccType}). The same result can be achieved by picking up an existing Variable, and will keep the code even if the Variable itself is later deleted. Formula fields can also include Running Totals and other Formula Fields, with some limits depending on when the values are calculated.

It is also possible to get get totals using a Formula Field, which can contain a Variable or a Directly Calculated Total.

To get yourself familiar with the idea, try doing a test report with a summary total and a running total for the same field, placed on the detail line. You'll find that the running total increases as each line is printed, whereas the summary total has the final value all along.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10