I was shown an unusual formula today. It looked something like this:

if {Customer.Customer ID} = 14then 30else 0

Note the space missing between the numbers and the words THEN and ELSE. These two words didn’t turn blue so I figured they weren’t being recognized and would generate an error. Surprisingly, the formula saved without error and the number 30 showed up in the correct places. The reserved words were still being recognized correctly, even without the spaces.

I did some testing and found that any formula where a number is usually followed by a space and then an operator word will work the same without the space. I tested this in some older versions of Crystal and it worked the same at least as far back as Crystal v8.5 (2001).

The only reserved words I can think of that can follow a number are these operators: AND, OR, IN, TO, THEN, ELSE, MOD and DO.  These all behave the same way.  I can’t think of any functions that can directly follow a number. A space is still required if the number follows these words.

So if you ever find a formula like this and wonder how Crystal is handling the error, now you know.