Dear all,

I have simple Cross-Tab report which includes one row: Currency, no columns, and a single summarized field: Sum(Delta).  Sum(Delta) can evaluate to a negative or a positive number .

I want to perform a Top N group sort by the absolute value of Sum(Delta), i.e. Abs(Sum(Delta)) but of course I'm restricted to group sorting by my single summarized field Sum(Delta).  So my report looks like this:

EUR    1.7
CAD    0.2
JPY    -45.9
USA    -121.2

whereas I want it to look like this:

USA    -121.2
JPY    -45.9
EUR    1.7
CAD    0.2

If I create a formula field for Abs(Delta), add a summarized field that computes Sum(Abs(Delta)) and then group sort on this, ordering for the report is still wrong because of course Sum(Abs(n)) is not the same as Abs(Sum(n)).

The version of Crystal Reports that comes with VS 2005 does not allow you to group sort by a custom function but is there a workaround that will allow me to sort my cross-tab report by Abs(Sum(Delta))?

Cheers,
David