Best Practices: Question about Passing DataSet to Crystal through C#

Question

I have used the tutorial provided by Business Objects and have successfully passed a dataset from C# code to Crystal Reports.
I have a few questions about "best pratices" though.
It appears that when passing the dataset to crystal then you no longer have the ability to put SQL Expressions in the report anymore otherwise errors will occur.
So, I'm trying to come up with a way to have a custom field in the SELECT statement and have it show up on the report as a field. So, in the below example I created a custom SQL field called TIMES7 in the query.
"Select CLM_ID, CLM, PAID_111X, *(PAID111X * 7) As TIMES7*_ From WIKI.MULCRICKET WHERE CLM_ID < 5"
If I create a formula field in Crystal and set it's value to {MULCRICKET .TIMES7} then it works like a hybrid SQL Expression at run-time.
This does work but has issues because the database field doesn't really exist in the design environment which causes error when the formula is saved. But it does work at run-time.
I was wondering if their was a best practice for this?

Answer 1

So why are you using a formula that doesn't work? If it errors in the designer it's telling you it's not supported.
Drop the formula into a filed and hide it if you don't want it displayed, this way it gets into the record selection formula.
"Best Practices" is don't use formulae that won't verify in the Designer. "If it doesn't work in the designer it won't work in code"
If you need to add an "unknown" field at run time then use RAS to insert the field.