Sams Teach Yourself Crystal Reports 9 in 24 Hours

The Formula Expert is used to create formulas based on existing custom functions either from the current report or the Crystal repository. The expert appears when you click the Use Expert buttonin the Formula Name dialog during the formula creation process. The Formula Expert leverages the power of the new custom functions and repository functionality of version 9. Figure 10.22 displays the Formula Expert dialog.

Using the Formula Expert is a simple three-step process:

1. Find the custom function that meets your formula requirements by searching through the Report and Repository Custom Function libraries. The supporting Help description and More Info button can aid in this search.

2. For each parameter of the selected function, select a field from your report data source or enter a constant.

3. Save the new formula using the Save button.

The created formula will now be accessible through the Formula Editor and can be enhanced or edited with the power that that tool provides.