Order by group left report

Question

Hi,
I have a sql which contains an order by clause (order by field1, field2), the query runs fine in SQL*Plus.
I tried to create a Group Left report in Reports 10g. When I run the report, it disregards the order by clause.
The report works fine if I picked tabular.
Thanks in advance
Tushar

Answer 1

Let us take an example of a table with the following structure -
create table test (grade varchar2(3),
detail varchar2(10));
Here GRADE is the column which contains numbers as well as alphabets or
alpha-numerals.
A normal query on the table would result in the following -
select grade, detail from test
GRADE DETAIL
1 DET1
1 DET2
1 DET3
1 DET4
2 DET1
2 DET2
2 DET3
5 DET1
A DET1
A DET2
B DET1
B DET2
B DET3
B DET4
10 DET1
10 DET2
10 DET3
If you want the GRADE to be sorted in a numeric order first and then alphabetically,
you can use the concept explained .
select grade, detail
from test
order by decode( TO_CHAR(NVL(LENGTH(TRANSLATE(grade,'A1234567890','A')),0)),
'0',LPAD(grade,8),
grade)
GRADE DETAIL
1 DET1
1 DET2
1 DET3
1 DET4
2 DET1
2 DET2
2 DET3
5 DET1
10 DET1
10 DET3
10 DET2
A DET1
A DET2
B DET1
B DET2
B DET3
B DET4
If you were to write the above query in Oracle Reports (tabular style),
the output would be the same as above.
But if you create a group left or group above style with GRADE as the
higher group, the same query would give the following result -
GRADE DETAIL
1 DET1
DET2
DET3
DET4
10 DET1
DET3
DET2
2 DET1
DET2
DET3
5 DET1
A DET1
DET2
B DET1
DET2
DET3
DET4
This is because although the server sends back the resulting set in the desired
ordered fashion, the grouping on grade does a further sort (ascending - the
default). But this sort is done alphabetically since this is a varchar2 column.
To avoid this or to achieve the desired output (numbers to appear sorted first
and then alphabets), use the decode in the select list itself.
Now the query for the report becomes -
select decode( TO_CHAR(NVL(LENGTH(TRANSLATE(grade,'A1234567890','A')),0)),
'0',LPAD(grade,8),
grade) grade
, detail
from test
The order by clause in the query is irrelevant since the grouping inside reports
anyway does the sort. The result would look like
GRADE DETAIL
1 DET1
DET2
DET3
DET4
2 DET1
DET2
DET3
5 DET1
10 DET1
DET3
DET2
A DET1
DET2
B DET1
DET2
DET3
DET4