I'm a bit new a this so hopefully I'm making a simple mistake and not going nuts.

First of all, I'm using Crystal Reports 2011.  I'm trying to modify reports from the Epicor application, but for the purposes of my testing, I'm starting with blank reports and inserting fields after setting up groups.

I'm having really strange behaviour with suppression. For reference, my test case has 2 lines of data.

I can get duplicate fields in subsequent lines to supress by doing the following:

1) In Format Field > Common Tab > Suppress (Formula Icon) setting the formula value to: {PODetail.Company} = Previous({PODetail.Company})
2) Leaving the Suppress checkbox *UNSELECTED*.

Supression of the second field then works as I'd hope.

If I check the Suppress checkbox, the field is supressed for BOTH lines.

If I change the forumla to TRUE, but leave the checkbox unselected, both fields are supressed.

The Suppress if Duplicated checkbox and formula appear to do absolutely nothing (even if Formula is set to TRUE or FALSE).

There's similar behaviour in the Section Expert - If I want to supress the entire line I need to leave the Suppress checkbox unchecked.

This seems like sheer madness to me.  Can someone verify this is abnormal behaviour?  Shouldn't the forumla be ignored if the checkbox is left unchecked?

I've got a wild theory as to why this might be, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious before reinstalling Crystal Reports from scratch.

Also, a follow up question.  If Suppress takes in a formula, that can use the Previous function, what exactly is the difference between "Suppress" and "Suppress If Duplicated"? (Or am I being confused by previous abnormal behaviour?)

Awesome, iSing!  That the checkox is independent of the formula (rather than a marker to activate the formula) explains 95% of my problems!  (I think I need to find a resource - book or online - to learn Crystal rather than simply diving in)

I'm still confused by the difference between Supress and Supress when duplicated.  Supress appears to be how I can suppress duplicate rows.  Supress when Duplicated appears to be non functional for two (different) rows with identical fields. 

Is "Suppress If Duplicated" supposed to suppress the field if the entire *row* is duplicated (i.e. "Suppress if Row Duplicated"), rather than a single field (i.e. "Suppress if Field Duplicated")?  That would explain the behaviour I'm seeing. 

The help text for "Suppress If Duplicated" is a bit vague here:  "This option compares record values, not formatted field values."    "Record values" could mean an individual value within a record (unformatted field data) or all the values within a record (complete duplicated rows)

DBlank, that's not how my "Suppress if Duplicated" is behaving. 

In my test case, I have two rows.  The rows are different, but they happen to share the same field data. The field I'm attempting to suppress has the value "102" in each row - no special formatting and I want to hide the second copy. 

Neither the Supress If Duplicated checkbox nor the forumla have any effect on field suppression.  Checkbox on/off, forumla TRUE or FALSE - there's no suppression.  If I place a formula like previous(company)=company  in the *Suppress* forumla - (not "Suppress If Dupluicated") (without checking the checkbox), it suppresses as expected.

My second row still appears on the first page.  The value is the same irregardless of formatting.  I'm stumped!  I must be missing something simple. (but not so obvious!)

Thanks everyone for your help!

DBlank++.  I have grouping in my report.  Removing grouping makes "Suppress If Duplicated" behave as you've described.

Thanks!