Ordering of values in Stacked Area Chart

Question

I have a stacked area chart that I want to order the stack from highest to shortest based on the last year.  The area chart has years and schools on the x axis and count one the y-axis.  I want to stack based on the last year of the school count.
When I order it in the chart expert, it seems to pick the first year as the criteria to order the stack.
Is there a way I could use some type of formula or something.
Thanks in advance.
Eric

Answer 1

Hi Eric,
As a static solution, you could use specified order.
In the Chart Expert, when you select your field located in the "On change of" list,
and click on the button "Order", you can change the order to: "in specified order"
Another static solution could be to actually create a formula like:
If {My Database Field} = "My Value 1" Then
     1
Else If {My Database Field} = "My Value 2" Then
     2
Else If {My Database Field} = "My Value 3" Then
     3
Then use the formula on the chart, instead of the database field.
And on the Legend, it will display the number like: 1, 2, 3,...
You can then replace the text on the legend by text object with the right heading, or manually create a legend with text objects.
Note that one thing to be careful of, it's if for one group, not all the subgroup are present, then the order will not be retained.
For example:
If I have on my chart the following:
- Country
- Product
With a summary on sales amount.
If I have the following data:
Canada
     - Product 1
     - Product 2
     - Product 4
USA
     - Product 1
     - Product 2
     - Product 3
     - Product 4
Then despite we set a specified order of:
     - Product 1
     - Product 2
     - Product 3
     - Product 4
The chart will display the order of:
     - Product 1
     - Product 2
     - Product 4
     - Product 3
This is happening because the first group on the chart doesn't have all the products, and it will use the element of that sub-group to order the information.
If you know that your data set may not have all the data for a sub-group used on the chart, then none of the above suggestion will work for you, unless you write a stored procedure, or a command object that always returns all the subgroup elements, or you use a subreport technique which is described in the sample report provided in the following knowledge  article:
1245204 - Date range in Chart for Crystal for all dates not just those dates with data
The Knowledge Base Article refer to dates, but the same technique applies for any type of data.
Hope this help!
Patrick