How do I filter child records in a Datareport

[tedsmith]

I have an 'Special Orders report' derived from 4 tables in a heirachy as follows-
Table1 has ID, CustomerName, Address
Table2 has ID, OrderNumber, OrderItem, Date, TotalPayment
Table3 has ID, OrderItem, OrderNumber, Cost, Date
Table4 has ID, OrderItem, SpecialThings, Date

Table 4 only has an entry for some customers who need something different

I set up the data report in 3 child levels
Parent has SQL Joined tables 1 & 2, Parameter = Date
Child1 is Table2
Child2 is Table3
Child3 is Table4

I had to join 1 & 2 to make the parameter work.

This shows everything nicely grouped in 4 grouping levels as some customers might have more items in their order than others.
My problem how do I show only the Customers who have a specialthing and hide the others who have none? The only reference to specialthing is in table 4

 

[greywalk]

If you are using the report form, I would suggest using the print when button for the field.

If not then use a subset select for your specialthingy.

Dancing is easy. Now dancing on a floating raft in the middle of an October storm in the middle of the North Atlantic, that is hard.

 

[tedsmith]

Thanks but how do I get at the print when button?
Im using the Datareport that comes with VB6

If I use a select SQL for the specialthingy Child3 it does not have any effect in stopping records that dont contain an entry for a specialthingy in table 4. I can stop child records but I cant stop parent records that dont have a child! (which is what I want to do)

I think need to get control at the parent level somehow.
I tried joining up table 4 to the parent SQL but is just shows no records at all. (WHERE Table4.SpecialThingy >' ')

Also there doesnt seem to be any way of altering some records on the fly like you can in Access with a function in the Access routine that fires every time you print each record. Do you know if this is possible?