Mastering Crystal Reports 9

Programming formulas in your reports lets you create calculated results that can add meaning to a report beyond the data values retrieved from a data source. The two flavors of formula programming built into Crystal Reports are Basic Syntax and Crystal Syntax. Both languages provide access to a wide variety of built-in functions plus the ability to create custom functions. A formula consists of variables, constants, operators, and keywords. In addition to creating formula fields and searching for information in a previewed report, which were covered in this chapter, you can code formulas in additional places in Crystal Reports, including the following:

• Record selection formulas (Chapter 7, “Selectively Refining a Report Using Data Values”)

• Group selection formulas (Chapter 6, “Summarizing Information”)

• Formatting sections and other report elements based on conditions (Chapter 8, “Customizing Sections”)

• Running total fields (Chapter 6)

• Creating conditional report alert messages (Chapter 7)

Use the information from this chapter together with the rest of Part 1, “Report Writing Fundamentals,” to put formulas to work and add business logic to a report.