Select Expert Not Displaying All Records in DropDown Menu 4

[mark929]

When I use the drop down menu in select expert, all the record choices are not showing. This is only when it involves a large number of records. It may only display records A-F. This forces me to type in a large amount of records when using the "One Of" option. Is there somewhere in the settings that allows all record choices to be viewable? If not, is there another way to make these selections without manually typing in all the specific records that I want to include?

Thanks

Mark

 

[Naith]

The drop down you're looking at is the same functionality as used by the Browse Field button you'll see from time to time when designing a report.

When you browse a field, by default you see the first 500 unique values of the field. You can toggle the 'Select Distinct Data for Browsing' option on the Database tab of the Options dialog box, and see how that affects the total of records browsed.

Naith

 

[mark929]

Thanks Naith,

I tried the Select Distinct Data for Browsing, but it had no effect. There are 951 records to choose from, so that may explain why I am only getting about half in the pull down menu. I'll try looking for a switch that will allow me to increase the default number of viewable records to more than 500.

Mark

 

[Naith]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think you're going to find that switch.

You're always going to have a limit linked to 500 values - either the first 500 values, or first 500 unique values. You won't be able to tell Crystal to just keep on searching indefinitely and return all values, I'm afraid.

Naith

 

[mark929]

I was afraid of that. I guess I'll have to do a little copying and pasting. Luckily, the need for this only happens once a year at FY end. The rest of the time, the default 500 is more than enough.

Thanks again for your help.

Mark

 

[rosemaryl]

Dear Mark,

I just answered this question on another forum I belong to, so here you go (instructions are for Crystal 8.X):

There are registry settings for the BrowseTimeOut and MaxNBrowseValues settings that you can modify that affect:

1. Via BrowseTimeOut. How much time is spent browsing the database, before CR times out and returns distinct records found. This value will over-ride the number of records to return. So usually you need to modify both BrowseTimeOut and MaxNBrowseValues.

2. Via MaxNBrowseValues. A limit on the number of records to return.

Standard editing registry warning message follows!

The Windows registry stores configuration data that is crucial to the operation of the Windows operating system. Only people experienced with using the Windows registry should undertake the following steps. Do NOT modify the registry if any of these steps are confusing to you.

Perform the following steps:

1. Close Crystal Reports (CR). This ensures the following changes are saved.

2 Go to 'Start' then click 'Run'.

3. Type 'Regedit' (no quotes), then click 'OK'. This opens the Registry Editor.

4. Drill down as shown below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Seagate Software\Crystal Reports\ DatabaseServer

5. To change how long CR browses the data in your database:

Double-click the BrowseTimeout item. This opens the 'Edit DWORD Value' dialog box.

In the 'Base' section, select 'Decimal'

In the 'Value Data' box, type in the maximum number of seconds you want CR to spend reading your database before stopping and displaying unique values it finds.

Entering zero ( enter the zero as 0) disables the timeout option.
This means that it will browse until it returns all records! Be careful here! Think about how long that can take.

Click OK to save the change.

6. To change how many records CR browses in your database:

Double-click the MaxNBrowseValues item. This opens the 'Edit DWORD Value' dialog box.

In the 'Base' section, select 'Decimal'.

In the Value Data box, type in the maximum number of records you want CR to read before stopping and displaying all unique values it found.

There is a price to pay, the more records you select the more time it takes. The default is 500, so if you are not seeing all of your values, try doubling it!

Click OK to save the change.

7. On the 'Registry' menu click 'Exit'

8. Restart Windows.

The next time you open Crystal Reports, these changes will be in effect and should allow you to select more records.

Hope that helps you,

ro Rosemary Lieberman
rosemary@microflo.com,

http://www.microflo.com

Microflo provides expert consulting on MagicTSD and Crystal Reports.

 

[synapsevampire]

Very nice, Ro*!

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[mark929]

Thanks Rosemaryl,

This is great, and I'm very comfortable in RegEdit. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

Mark