Print Page | Close Window

Problem With Blank Field

Printed From: Crystal Reports Book
Category: Crystal Reports 9 through 2020
Forum Name: Report Design
Forum Discription: The best way to design a report and problems you have encountered
URL: http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22399
Printed Date: 05 May 2024 at 3:49am


Topic: Problem With Blank Field
Posted By: fuller31
Subject: Problem With Blank Field
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2017 at 10:44am
I have a report where sometimes one of the fields on the report might be blank every so often. I don't have anything weird going on with this field, it is simply a field that I want displayed on my report. Although that one particular field may be blank, I still need to display data from other fields relevant to that record to show on my report. When I run that report, none of the data on the record with the one blank field shows up. I'm not filtering by the field that is sometimes blank; I simply filter by date and time.

I just need this report to give me the other data even if the one field is blank.


Replies:
Posted By: DBlank
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2017 at 11:04am
are you concatenating fields?

Posted By: fuller31
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2017 at 11:12am
Originally posted by DBlank

are you concatenating fields?

No

Posted By: DBlank
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2017 at 11:16am
unless you are using the 'blank' field in some capacity other than displaying it you should sill see the other fields from that row of data.
IF the field is NULL and you are using it in a formula and not accounting for NULL it will stop the formula from working
Or maybe you are using it in a select statement?
anything here seem likely?

Posted By: fuller31
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2017 at 11:39am
Originally posted by DBlank

unless you are using the 'blank' field in some capacity other than displaying it you should sill see the other fields from that row of data.
IF the field is NULL and you are using it in a formula and not accounting for NULL it will stop the formula from working
Or maybe you are using it in a select statement?
anything here seem likely?

The field in question is a narrative field; it is just a bunch of free text on each record. All it does is display.

Posted By: DBlank
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2017 at 3:14am
Just pulling fields from one table/source and placing them on the report canvas should not make any rows disappear if a field is blank.
If you are joining tables/sources you might have an issue with your join that is excluding rows you want.
If you are using any select criteria the select criteria might be excluding NULLs which was not your intent.
A suppression formula might also explain it.

It is hard to tell with such limited information so I am just giving you areas to consider that might create the effect you are seeing. If any of these might be the issue please post more information about what your report uses and maybe someone can figure it out.

Posted By: hilfy
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2017 at 3:24am
Is the field in a separate table that may or may not have a record for the rest of the data? For example a Notes table that only has data when there's a note? If so, you need to make the join FROM your other data TO the note, right-click on the link, go to something like "join options", and make it a left-outer join.

-Dell

-------------
Proviti, Data & Analytics Practice
http://www.protiviti.com/US-en/data-management-advanced-analytics - www.protiviti.com/US-en/data-management-advanced-analytics

Posted By: fuller31
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2017 at 9:15am
Originally posted by hilfy

Is the field in a separate table that may or may not have a record for the rest of the data? For example a Notes table that only has data when there's a note? If so, you need to make the join FROM your other data TO the note, right-click on the link, go to something like "join options", and make it a left-outer join.

-Dell

That is exactly the situation - the field is a separate table that only has data when there's a note. I made it a left outer join, but still no change in the results.

Posted By: DBlank
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2017 at 9:17am
is there a select statement that is effectively making the outer join into an inner join?

Posted By: fuller31
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2017 at 9:37am
Update - Right outer join seems to have solved the issue. Thanks to everyone for taking a crack at it!


Print Page | Close Window