Please help me find a solution!

Question

Hello all,
I am recreating a report that joins together 20+ tables.  I have tried several different options for grouping / displaying only what's needed and ALL of what's needed (this has been my struggle). 
It seems like the more grouping structure I add, the more pages (more results) are returned.  I also have a copy of this report using quite a few sub queries, but I am wanting to stay away from this method as 10 sub queries for one report seems a bit ridiculous! Not to mention, there is a lot of info to squeeze onto a limited amount of space... So when an account has more results than can be displayed, I'm finding it difficult to span each sub report across multiple pages.
I would also like to avoid excessive SQL queries and Crystal formulas, if possible.  Is there any simple solution?

Answer 1

Hi Holly,
I'm sure it looks overwhelming. 
Is there anyone there who could help you with the query?  20+ is a lot of tables,
and I'm almost certain that you will need a "left outer join" or 2 to get the data
you need.
If it were me, this is what I would do.
Get a query builder package like :
Visual Studio
Toad
DB2 Visualizer
...depending on the db you are using
Next, I'd build the query one table at a time, making sure that I had the correct
return of data before adding another table.  Use the "where" clause to filter
out all records you don't need, for example:
...(DB2) where (Table.Field) is not null
and sub select statements:
                                    SELECT VH400.ACTV_NBR,
                VH439.ACTV_NBR,
                VH400.STA_CDE_ID as "400_Status_Code",
                VH439.STA_CDE_ID as "439_Status_Code",
                (Select Count(DGTR001.VH400.STA_CDE_ID)
                                                 from VH400           
                where VH400.ACTV_NBR = VH439.ACTV_NBR) as Count
With sub selects, "With" statements (DB2), derived tables, etc., you can get most,
if not all the data you need in one statement.
When this is done, the finish line is near and the remaining solutions are much easier
to find.
If you can't do that, build the report one table at a time, using the same guidelines.
Use the linking feature in Crystal to return the data exactly the way you want it,
before adding another table. 
On suppression, you can "suppress blank sections" of the detail section
(in the Section Expert) and you can also suppress the field itself if it returns no data.
Use what you can of what I've said here.  I really hope it helps a little,
The Panda