This one is hard to understand or even describe without an example but here is the general description: A three-level cascading parameter will work fine as long as all of the values in level 2 are unique. However if any values in level 2 can be found in more than one top level group, then you will likely lose values in level 3. Like I said, an example is needed. Say you used the following 8 records to create a three-level cascade for Vendor, Category and Model:

Dell / Notebook / Model_A
Dell / Notebook / Model_B
Dell / Desktop / Model_1
Dell / Desktop / Model_2

Compaq / Notebook / Model_X
Compaq / Notebook / Model_Y
Compaq / Desktop / Model_8
Compaq / Desktop / Model_9

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Three-level cascading parameter that duplicates/drops values

I was working with a customer the other day and was told that the company had implemented a Crystal Report standard that ALL reports would have the option “Convert Database Null Values to Default” checked. I almost never check that as a global default in a report. One of the main reasons has to do with WHEN that conversion takes place. It happens after the query has been run in the database but before Crystal reads in the records. That makes it very difficult to select null values. Consider a report using the Xtreme Customer table that lists all customers with Null postal codes. My selection formula is: Continue Reading »
Convert Nulls and Selecting Nulls

I have a formula on my site that appends a series of string values from consecutive records and turns them into one long string. But if you are using version 8.5 there is a limit of 256 characters of output for any formula which limits the usefulness of this formula. But Shelly Petersen of Computer Arts, Inc. recently gave me a draft of a variation of my formula that allows v8.5 to get around this limit. It splits the string into several variables that are each under the 256 limit, and then she uses separate formulas to display each variable. She puts all of the formulas together in one large text object to show the long combined string (since text objects don’t have length limits). Here is the main formula: Continue Reading »
Apending Strings in v8.5 into one long string over 256 Chars

I doubt that many of you will ever run into this limit, but for those who need to manage large data sets: the Group Tree in versions 9 through 12 will simply stop at group number 65,500. The groups beyond that point will still appear in the report (both preview and print) but will not show up in the group tree.

The good news is that this limit is applied per node. So, if you have a single group level with 90K groups you will only see 2/3 of them in the group tree. But if you add a primary group that splits the list in half, then each node of the primary group can show up to 65K groups.

I have had 3 customers (so far) who have called me to fix their Crystal Reports for PeachTree 2008. These are reports that worked fine under previous versions of PeachTree but ‘break’ when run against 2008. And in 2 of the 3 cases the customer had been assured by PeachTree sales that the upgrade would not affect custom reports. That might be true as long as you aren’t using any balances from the CHART table or the billing address from the Customer table.

All of the balance fields in the CHART table have been renamed although the number of fields and their order seems to be exactly the same. Also the CUSTOMER table has lost the billing address fields which have been moved to another table.

If you need help with custom reports for PeachTree 2008, or any other version, give me a call.