Order by problem

Question

hi all
i have to make a report that has group fields.
and i need to change order by of this query in runtime
query must be ordered by each field that user select in runtime.
if i use sql query for making this report and at the end of my
sql statement i use a lexical parameter for order by:
select ...
from ...
where ...
& order_parameter
but in runtime the order by part doesnt work.
i think about Creating a local query by Ref Cursor Query tool.
in select for ref cursor i couldnt use order by.
any idea would be appretiate.
regards
shoja.

Answer 1

Shoja,
For this purpose you can you lexical column name. For example:
if originaly you have:
Select Dept_no,
group_no,
emp_name,
Sal
FROM EMP_DEPT
and you have group for dept_no and group_no columns. if User want to sort by dept_no, group_no, and emp_name.
You can use
you can define user_parameters Col1 to col3. Make sure the datatype for these is Character and also these are assigned some initial values like...Dept_no, group_no etc.
in data model define you sql as:
Select &col1 sort_col1,
&col2 sort_col2,
&col3 sort_col3,
Dept_no,
group_no,
emp_name,
Sal
FROM EMP_DEPT
No in AfterParameterForm trigger you can assign any value to these parameters for example:
you can say :col1 := 'group_no';
:col2 := 'dept_no';
:col3 := 'emp_no';
Also make sure that only these columns have sort property set. i.e. only these columns col1 to col3 have a blue arrow in front of them in data model.
You can arrange these in any groups and also put other columns in the groups.
This will enable you dynamically sort/group/break on any column.
Let me know if you still have problems..
Brinder Lally