Extended Formatting Features (Crystal Reports)
The Extended Formatting Features
1) Display String :- It can be used to do any Data Display modification , based on a business condition.
Benefit:-
a) Can reduce the overload of creating additional formulas which might cause an performance issue.
b) Many additional logic can be implemented and incorporated in a single set of Database field.
How to use :-
The Field which requires the data display modification we need to right click on the field, go to Format Field option and then select the
common Tab from the list of Tabs displayed in the new format window and then go to Display String property and set the required rule.
EG:- For a field lets say Gender which returns a “M” or “F” , and the business requirement is to show MALE for “M” and FEMALE for “F”, we
can use the display string property and set the condition as
if currentfieldvalue=”M” then “MALE” else “FEMALE”.
Thus the above process will display MALE for “M” and FEMALE for “F” with in the same field with out creating any additional formula, thus will improve the
performance of the report on whole.
2) Right-Left Indentation
In the Scenario where there is an data overlap when the crystal report is hosted on web (Zero -client Environment) despite of giving the proper result at the designer level
and having all the required properties ser (i.e. Can Grow option checked).
For resolving the above issue the best practice would be to set a Right indentation value in case of Right side data overlap and left indentation in case of Left side data overlap (in Case where the report has multi language display)
Benefit :-
1) Can work in parallel to Can grow and resolve the data overlap in the reports hosted over Web.
2) Can also work positive in cases where the data overlap / data overflow happens across the right margin of the Report Page when the report is hosted over Web.
How to use :-
For the field which has an data overlap issue , we would be required to right click on the field ,then select format field option and go to the Paragraph Tab out of the many tabs displayed in the
new Format Field window, then go to the Indentation option and set the Right Indentation value to the minimum required to resolve the overlap issue .
Note : – The Default value for any Indentation is set to 0.