Issue with Grouping.

Question

Sorry for length of htis post.Only way to describe issue was with example.
I have a report which lists details at Store levels.
Input Data is as follows:   [ Simplified ]
Store Name Store Id   Details
Bath            0001        0001aaaa
Bath            0001        0001bbbb
Bath            0001        0001cccc
Chelsea       0678        0678aaaa
Chelsea       0678        0678bbbb
Chelsea       0678        0768ccc
Derby          0500        0500aaaa
Derby          0500        0500bbbb
Derby          0500        0500cccc
etc.
I grouped the Report by Store Name. 
There is no summation - or data manipulation required.
The reason for Groupng is simply to allow:
a) To Group and Sort Report by Store Name
b) To throw page after each Store
c) To facilitate Group Tree. 
Expected result.
Bath            0001       
0001aaaa
0001bbbb
0001cccc
Throw page
Chelsea      0678 
0678aaaa
0678bbbb
0768ccc
Throw page
Derby          0500       
0500aaaa
0500bbbb
0500cccc
Throw page       etc
Actual Result:
*Bath            0001*
*0001aaaa*
*0001bbbb*
*Throw page*
*Bath            0001*
*0001cccc*
Throw page
Chelsea      0678 
0678aaaa
0678bbbb
0768ccc
Throw page
Derby          0500       
0500aaaa
0500bbbb
0500cccc
Throw page etc
So Bath [ in this example ] has two Groups.
Bath is shown twice in the Group tree.
One Group Displays all Subdetails - Except one   
The second Group Displays only One line of sub details.
This only occurs for one store  [ out of 200 or so ]  
Initially this occured for one store. Which was arbitary [ i.e. Not nec. the first alphabetically ].
In the end I enforced the sort order in the SQL which produced the data.
This had the effect of moving the issue to the first store [ alphabetically ] but stil onlu one store.  
Obvious stuff.
I have checked the data. The value 'Bath' is derived from the same field in all cases.
[ It picks up store name from a lookup table to decode the Store number for a more meaningful display ]
So there is no possibility that this is data related.  
This issue has been driving me mad.
I eventually had to use a work-around; where I grouped by Store Number instead;
This had the expected effect. Although the Group Tree is not as user friendly and the group is not in alphabetic order.
The users use store name & store number with equal familiarity - so they are happy for now.
But I need to know what happened here.
Edited by: Joe Coen on Jun 9, 2009 1:29 PM

Answer 1

Well, I waded my way through it, and (provided I got the right end of the stick), I'd start with the following to figure out what's going on.  My thinking is that there are two groups - probably different storeNumbers, but with the same (or similar) names:
Have group on StoreName, and also another on StoreNumber - that way when you get to the Bath groups, you can see what StoreNumbers they relate to.  This might highlight the fact you have a "Bath" and a "Bath       "  (leading/trailing spaces), or two "Bath" stores. I know you say you've checked the data, but it's worth double-triple checking before you go mad.
You could also check for the trailing spaces by having a formula to group on (rather than the store name) that takes the form of ">>>""<<<" - this would highlight any leading/trailing spaces.