Display current and previous months records only

Question

Hello gang,
My selection criteria looks like this:
not ({HRDEPBEN.PLAN_CODE} startswith ["C", "EAP", "HMIL", "V", "W"]) and
(month({hrdepben.Creation_date}) = month(currentdate)) and
{HRDEPBEN.PLAN_TYPE} = "HL"
I modified it to this in order to pull in previous month's data too:
{HRDEPBEN.PLAN_TYPE} = "HL" and
not ({HRDEPBEN.PLAN_CODE} startswith ["C", "EAP", "HMIL", "V", "W"]) and
(month({hrdepben.Creation_date}) = month(currentdate) or month ({hrdepben.Creation_Date})= month (currentdate)-1)
However, it's still pulls the same record count and only January records, not Decembers'.
Where am I going wrong?
Thanks

Answer 1

Looks like you're reporting against Lawson?  What database are you using?
There are a few issues with the record selection criteria as it's written:
1)  Month(CurrentMonth) - 1 = 0 when the current month is January.  That's why your not getting any records from December.
2)  The  monthly criteria won't be passed to the database for processing, which is a huge performance issue when you're reporting against a system like Lawson.  You're basically telling the report to bring back all records that don't start with an array of values, irrespective of the date.  Only after all the possible records are returned across the network will the extraneous records be filtered out on the client side.  That's bad.
3)  It's easy to use StartsWith or Like, but it's also pretty inefficient, since it forces a full table scan of the underlying table
Personally, I'd do one of two things in order to both fix the query and optimize it:
1)  Write the underlying query in SQL as either a View or SQL Command object
or
2)  Keep the current report, but make use of SQL Expression fields in order to optimize the query.
Here are some examples of SQL Expression fields against Oracle (PL/SQL) that could be useful:
/*{%PLANCODES}*/
/*This SQL Expression evaluates whether or not a Plan Code starts with the specified values*/
/*"HRDEPBEN"."PLAN_CODE" is selected directly from the Field Tree in the SQL Expression Editor*/
CASE
  WHEN SUBSTR("HRDEPBEN"."PLAN_CODE",1) IN ('C','V','W') THEN 'Y'
  WHEN SUBSTR("HRDEPBEN"."PLAN_CODE",3) = 'EAP' THEN 'Y'
  WHEN SUBSTR("HRDEPBEN"."PLAN_CODE",4) = 'HMIL' THEN 'Y'
  ELSE 'N'
END
/*{&CREATEDATEMONTH}*/
/*This SQL Expression returns the month of the Creation Date field*/
/*"HRDEPBEN"."CREATION_DATE" is selected directly from the Field Tree in the SQL Expression Editor*/
TO_NUMBER(TO_CHAR("HRDEPBEN"."CREATION_DATE",'mm'))
You could also create formula to return the Month value for last month and then use it in your record selection:
//{@LASTMONTH}
//This formula returns the Month value for Last Month
//IIF statements can be passed to the database for processing
IIF(Month(CurrentDate) = 1, 12, Month(CurrentDate) - 1)
With expressions and formulas like these in place (this code is Oracle and DB2 compatible, it would be different for T-SQL), you could then modify your record selection criteria to be something simpler, like this:
{HRDEPBEN.PLAN_TYPE} = "HL" and
{%PLANCODES} = 'N' and
{%CREATEDATEMONTH} IN {@LASTMONTH} TO MONTH(CURRENTDATE)// MONTH(CURRENTDATE) is passed to the DB
By laying the groundwork, you'll have a much more efficient report and, in the case of the @LastMonth, more accurate! Hope this helps!
p.s. a disclaimer on using SQL Expressions in this manner - it's not officially supported, although it's worked since Version 7 (when SQL Expressions were introduced) and there will be support for them in various 2011 versions. As such, they'll work for years. I use them all the time and they're fantastic for optimizing reports.