No worries. When I run into these kinds of issues I usually disect the formulas into individual pieces and see what is happening per condition, this includes running each part of that OR statement seperately.
The difference between an empty string and NULL is the same as any DB although how you have your Report Option and NULL value options handled can impact it.
a NULL Is more akin to the data does not exist and an emptry string is more like a space although technically that is not correct.
Searchig for an item=NULL will not include a field that has an empty string but looking for item that <> NULL will include an empty string.
You are correct that in the above statement the as soon as the formula finds either statement to be TRUE it should includes the row.
if you used XOR it would always evaluate both.
That being said I have had issues with how Crystal handles NULLs in some of my formulas, especially if I use IIF or switch() in the formula.
So...it may be failing when it is hitting a NULL in the first part of your OR and not checking the secord part of the OR which omits items it should include.
You can try this to see if it helps...
((isnull({probsummarym1.dil.att.ticketno})=False and (length({probsummarym1.dil.att.ticketno})> 0)) or
(isnull({probsummarym1.dil.problem.type})=False and (length({probsummarym1.dil.problem.type})> 0)))
Edited by DBlank - 31 Jul 2009 at 11:58am