Report becomes blank

[novice001]

Hi All!
I have a very strange problem with a report.

I have a summary report that uses pretty complex data model - about 20 tables. One of the tables is used a few times under different aliases (I dont know what is important and what is not). It is usually just one page long.

When I run or print it, everything is fine for some time. However, in a few days, after few uses, something crashes(?), and the same report gives me blank page.
Well, it's not exactly blank - I still have all plain text labels and graphics, but all data fields come out blank. Even if I put another field, let's say calculated field with value "test" in it, it comes out blank. From this time on, it is always blank, doesn't matter if i restart computer, run it again 50 times, add some fields or remove.

What I have to do is to take the same report and do it again from scratch in a new file - same data model, same everything and it works again for a few days... Even if I copy-paste tables to the new file it works there, but in the old file it is still blank.

I have many different reports, and only this one gives such problems. It never happened with any other file, but already happened 3 times with this one (I did it again from scratch, even used different filenames...)

Does anyone know what it can be? Paradox glitch? Any ideas how to go around it? Any help will be greatly appreciated, because it's really annoying to do the same report every 2-3 days...

I'm using Paradox 10 and Windows 2000

Thank You

 

[NotAllThere]

I don't have any suggestion as to what the problem may be. However, just in case the report is getting corrupted, why don't you mark it as read only at file system level - find the report in Windows Explorer, right click and tick the Read Only box.
HTH
PAdraig

 

[Langley]

Have you examined the answer table the report is based on to make sure that it contains data? Also, post the query used to generate the data for the report. Mac

"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't"

langley_mckelvy@cd4.co.harris.tx.us

 

[novice001]

Guys, thanks for help, but...
I know this problem sounds strange, it really is like a fiction. I have a button that prints this report. There's almost no code there, just a few env. variables are assigned and one line to print this report.
All the answer tables are done by multiple queries on the program start and are also shown in other reports. This one uses many different tables. Tables are not empty, thats for sure.
When the report is just created, i click the button once and get nice report. Click it again and get again nice report. Click it again and *[again] and... get report with a few fields blank. Click it again and get all the fields blank, just some words of plain text on it. From now on its always with blank fields like this.
Another "cool" thing - the report itself is not corrupted. I have a backup copy of it, from the moment when it worked fine. I copy it back there, but nothing changes, it is still blank. So the problem is not in the report itself (???)
Also if i put calculation field with some predefined value, like '1', or "test" or whatever, it doesn't show. It's empty! If i put some plain text, it's there... If i put calculation field with value "today" it shows it correctly.
Very mysterious... If you have any ideas, I would be glad to try.
Thanks

 

[Langley]

Is this happening on the screen, the printed result, or both? Mac

"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't"

langley_mckelvy@cd4.co.harris.tx.us

 

[novice001]

Both

 

[Langley]

That's a poser, for certain. Would you post the query you use to generate the data for the report? Mac

"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't"

langley_mckelvy@cd4.co.harris.tx.us

 

[novice001]

There's no single query to show... This is report that shows what documents are not finished. Like orders, customer records, etc. Altogether 6 types of different things. For each one is a different query and different report for only that type. When program starts it executes all the queries and you can see reports for each type of items or summary report for all of them. Reports for one type work without any problems, but this summary report...

I just tried to edit it again... and... it works fine! It didn't work 20min ago, but works now. I just don't know what to think. Let's see how long it will work this time. Maybe its something like lack of resources that happenes sometimes, but its really strange because we have here P4 with 256 ram and just one paradox running...

 

[footpad]

novice001,

Hm. In my experience, reports are usually empty only when there's no data (e.g. the table or query results are empty).

Perhaps you can simply the data model to exclude tables that you know aren't needed? That may help reduce the amount of work needed to fully investigate the problem.

Once you've done that, then look at the underlying tables themselves. See if there are matches that would normally print and so on.

If there is data that matches the conditions you've set up in the report itself, then you're delaing with either a lack of resouces (generally disk space on the drive assigned as your private directory or corruption of some kind.)

If the data checks out, the it's possible that indexes used to link the tables in the data model are corrupted, e.g. they're not finding matching records. In that case, you might start by writing down the index structures, deleting the undelying files manually, and then re-creating the indexes from scratch.

Usually, there's a reson for this sort of thing; what takes the time is trying to figure out what that is.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[mtastad]

This may be too basic of a solution, but I have had problems with report output when I use too small of fonts. Sounds crazy, but if my fonts are below about 8pt I sometimes get unpredictable output.