Report based on parameter values

Question

Morning all,
I have to create a report which includes Account Number, Account Name, Sales prices. There has to be two optional parameters, Account number (Static) and Product Description (Dynamic).
I have setup the report with Account Number (Grouped), Account Name. The report works fine, when a user selects a particular account number, the report produces fine.
Things I would like to do and know about:
1: when it comes to sales price, it should reflect to what user has selected under Product Description parameter.
for example if the user has selected Supra, Supra KNT, Rimless, Metal etc from the description parameter, the report should only show those selected prices according to the account number (showing descriptive field value).
2: Additionally, if user chooses all of the options from the drop down menu (multiple selection dexcription parameter) then the report should show all the prices according to the description (showing the description field value).
The problem in this case which I think would be is because the description values are quite alot, I mean more than 25 values and if a user selects multiple values, lets say all, how would Crystal adjust that into a report?
Example of a report
Parameters
=============
Account Number:
Description: Supra, Supra KNT, Metal, Plastic, Rimless, Rimless KNT (multiple selection)
Report Layout
============
Account Number --- Account Name --- Supra - Supra KNT - Metal - Plastic - Rimless - Rimless KNT
(Where Supra to Rimless KNT options are chosen by Descriptive parameter value - if not chosen then report will only show account number and account name).
If however only Supra is selected then the report would look like this
Report Layout
============
Account Number --- Account Name --- Supra
Any ideas how to achieve this kind of report? I have setup the report in a landscape so that we can fit as many description values as possible but I only managed to show 9, rest goes over the page.
The report in the end has to be exported to excel so I don't mind if it goes over a page.
Regards
Jehanzeb

Answer 1

Jehanzeb,
You do want to use cross tabs...
Have your database query produce a table with the following columns:
Account Info (Number & Name)
Product Description
Sales
e.g.,
Select AcctNo + " - " + AcctName as AcctInfo,
   ProdDesc,
   sum(Sales) as Sales
from SalesTable
group by AcctNo, AcctName, ProdDesc
Then use record selection to limit the data to the selected products.
Yes, the layout of a cross tab is a bit strange, in that the design of the cross tab only shows one column for the data, but the table will expand with the underlying data.  If 4 products are selected, there will be 4 columns of sales numbers.  When setting up the cross tab, make the AcctInfo field the row header, and the ProdDesc field the column header, and the Sales field the table cell value.
HTH,
Carl