The following describes how you create a version which will be used for reports of report type 1, which represents a version report. Version reports are largely predefined in layout, based on the structure of your key fields. This kind of report is mainly used when the files are logically structured. Whereas, type 2 reports are line reports which consist of lines that you set up and define yourself, regardless of the structure of your files.
You will create a version for the following keys:
- Customer number
- Country
- Customer group
The text marked with blue, is information you will define in this routine.
Report example
- Select the Work with reports menu item.
- On the main panel, select the applicable version report and click Versions.
- You access Work with report versions, Versions by report showing all versions that have been created and have the same statistic keys as the report you are maintaining. Click All to list all versions. Click Add to create a new version.
- You access the Work with report versions detail panel. In the upper part of the panel you define general information about the version:
- Version
- Enter the name of the version.
- Description
- Enter a description of the version.
- Double space
- Set to NO to indicate that you do not want double spaces between the lines when the report is printed.
- Totals on page shift
- Set to NO to indicate that you do not want a sum on the bottom of each page when the report is printed.
- Sequence
- Enter 1 (primary sorting) next to statistics key Cust/supp number.
- Enter 2 next to statistics key Country.
- Enter 3 next to statistics key Cust/supp group.
- Detail
- This column has to be completed for all keys for which you have defined a sequence. If the Level column is blank, then you are only allowed to set this column to YES. For more information about the Level column, see Define a version with break levels.
- Set Cust/supp number, Country and Cust/supp group to YES. Click Selection.
- You access Work with report versions, Select key values where you can select the data to be included in the report when using this version. The following options exist:
- From/To selection
- These fields can be used in two ways:
- Enter a value in the From and/or To fields for a key. If you, for example, only want to include customer numbers within the interval 100100 and 100999, enter 100100 in the From field and 100999 in the To field, next to key Cust/supp number.
Note: You can define selections for any key selected in the report description, even if you did not define a sequence for the key on the panel.
- Enter dots (….) in the From and/or To fields for a key. This will result in a selection panel when this version is used when printing a report. See step 5 in Print a report on paper.
Note: You have to enter as many dots as the key is long. For example, if you enter dots for the key Cust/supp number, you should enter eleven dots, since this field Cust/supp number is eleven positions long.
Tip: The figure within brackets to the far right, displays the number of positions. For the key Cust/supp number, the following is shown: (11 A), where A means that the field is alphanumeric (both digits and characters are allowed). The letter X means that the field is numeric (only digits are allowed.
- Mask selection
- This field can be used in three ways:
- If you only want to include country GB, enter GB in the Mask field for the key.
- Enter dots (….) in the Mask field for a key. This will result in a selection panel when this version is used when a report is printed. See step 5 in Print a report on paper.
Note: You have to enter as many dots as the key is long. For example, if you enter dots for the key Country, you should enter four dots, since this field Country is four positions long.
- If you want to include all customer/supplier numbers with the character “2” in the third position of the code (102000, 112040, 122300), enter __2________ in the Mask column.
Note: In the first two positions you enter underscores (__), in the third position you enter the character 2, in the next eight positions you enter underscore (________). The total length of characters and underscores must equal the length of the key. That is why you have to enter eight underscores after the character 2.
In the bottom part of the panel, to the left, you see all the keys selected in the report description. The keys are used to define how the information will be sorted on the report printout. Here, the information will be primarily sorted according to Customer group. Within each customer group, the information will be sorted according to Country and within each country according to Customer number.
Selections in columns/versions
If you have made selection(s) in a column and you make selection(s) for other keys (than in the column) here, it is possible that you will not receive any result when the report is created. This is because the system will select the appropriate summary level according to the selections defined here, and not in the column.
Example:
In a column you make a selection on the statistic key Country. In the version connected to the report you make selection on the statistic key Customer/supplier number. When the report is created (for example, printed), the system will try to find the most appropriate summary level to use according to selections done in the version. If the system finds a summary level defined with only the key Customer/supplier number, that summary level will be used. This means that no summaries exist in the Balance file for Country and Customer/supplier – which can result in zero figures.
To avoid the problem with zero result, also make selections for the same keys as in any column. For example, in this case complete the “From” and “To” fields for the Country key and select all countries. For this example, a selection possibility should be available when this version is used when printing reports. The selection should be done for key Customer group.
Click OK to create the version. Exit the routine.