Values displayed in report do not match those in underlying data source

Question

hi -- I have a report based on a view. The view contains a date (never null) and several numeric value columns
which can be null. The dates are outer joined to a date table, so even in Feb of 2011, the view will
have a month date for every month of the year, but the other columns are null values for Feb - Dec.
January does have values.
So,  the view data (queried from sqlplus) is correct. However, when that view is queried via a Crystal report, all
data except the date is null -- even for complete years where there's a value for every month.
When I modify the view to replace nulls with 0s, all values (even the ones that are not null / not 0 when querying the view)
are now displayed as 0.
The dates are correct, and the database fields in question are in a details section; I can't figure out what's going on.
Ideas?
Thanks,
Carol

Answer 1

hi Brian -- First, I did try the other suggestion Convert Database Null Values to Default, and that didn't work.
Here's the info you requested:
Crystal Reports version: 12.3.3.812, product type Full
  (I'm pretty sure this whole thing was working a couple of months back; I thought
   maybe I was remembering incorrectly when it started behaving the way it is now.
   I can't recall for sure, but it's possible that my upgrade to SP3 (is that the
   latest one?) and the hotfixes were applied betweeen then and now...I just thought
   of that as I was writing up this response.
Oracle database: same results on 9.2.0.8 and 10.2.0.4
Connection type: I'm not (I don't think) using ODBC.
  My connection type for both databases is Crystal's Oracle Server.
The results in SQLPlus for both queries (the one that returns all
0s and the one that returns all nulls in Crystal) are correct. That is, there
are values where there are supposed to be values, nulls/0s where
there are no values.
I'm sure the problem is with the outer join to the date table. Here's
(part of) the sql for the view definition. Dates_between is a function
that returns a full list of sequential dates from the indicated start date
to the indicated end date, at the interval specified.
select *
from
(select
rep.report_name
REPORT_NAME,
to_char(start_date_time, 'yyyy')
YEAR,
start_date_time
START_DATE_TIME,
round(sum(decode(site_datatype_id, 45110, nvl(value, 0), 0)), 2)
COCHITI_ELEV,
    FROM r_month,
      ref_wa_report rep,
      TABLE(dates_between('01-JAN-2005',TRUNC(sysdate,'yyyy')+366,'month')) dates
    WHERE rep.report_id = 45
    AND date_time       = start_date_time(+)
    GROUP BY rep.report_name,
      dates.date_time
    ORDER BY rep.report_name,
      dates.date_time
When I don't use the date table, and the WHERE clause is as follows, the report
returns the correct data (that is, it actually returns the data that's in the DB).
The problem is that it doesn't return any rows if there isn't any data -- and I need
rows with dates only in that case:
from r_month, ref_wa_report rep
where rep.report_id = 45
group by rep.report_name, start_date_time
order by rep.report_name, start_date_time
The SQL query in Crystal was the same for all 3 different views:
SELECT "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."START_DATE_TIME", "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_ELEV", "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_RG_CONT",
"WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_SJC_CONT", "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_MONTH_SED", "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_ACCUM_SED",
"WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."COCHITI_CONT", "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."YEAR", UPPER(RTRIM("WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."REPORT_NAME"))
FROM   "ALBHDBA"."WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW" "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"
ORDER BY "WA_45_SEDIMENT_STOR_SJC_VIEW"."START_DATE_TIME"
I'm including the definition of dates_between below. Sorry, this is a ton of info, but might as well
include it all now!
create or replace
FUNCTION dates_between(start_date_time IN DATE,
                                         end_date_time IN DATE DEFAULT NULL,
                                         interval VARCHAR2 DEFAULT 'day')
RETURN date_array
PIPELINED
end_date DATE := end_date_time;
start_date DATE := start_date_time;
dates date_object := date_object(NULL);
temp_chars VARCHAR2(30);
BEGIN
  IF end_date < start_date THEN
    deny_action('End date must be after start date!');
  END IF;
  BEGIN
    SELECT interval_name
    INTO temp_chars
    FROM hdb_interval
    WHERE interval_name = interval;
  EXCEPTION WHEN others THEN
    deny_action('Dates between function INVALID ' || interval || ' interval');
  END;
  CASE interval
  WHEN 'instant' THEN
    deny_action('Cannot use instant interval in dates_between! Use instants_between.');
  WHEN 'hour' THEN
    IF end_date IS NULL THEN
      end_date := TRUNC(sysdate,   'HH24') + 1 / 24;
    END IF;
    FOR i IN 0 ..(end_date -start_date) *24
    LOOP
      dates.date_time := start_date_time + i / 24;
      pipe ROW(dates);
    END LOOP;
  WHEN 'day' THEN
    IF end_date IS NULL THEN
      end_date := TRUNC(sysdate,   'DD') + 1;
    END IF;
    FOR i IN 0 ..(end_date -start_date)
    LOOP
      dates.date_time := start_date_time + i;
      pipe ROW(dates);
    END LOOP;
  WHEN 'month' THEN
    IF end_date IS NULL THEN
      end_date := TRUNC(sysdate,   'MM');
    END IF;
    /* months_between takes the later date first */
    FOR i IN 0 .. months_between(end_date,   start_date)
    LOOP
      dates.date_time := add_months(start_date,   i);
      pipe ROW(dates);
    END LOOP;
  WHEN 'year' THEN
    IF end_date IS NULL THEN
      end_date := TRUNC(sysdate,   'YYYY');
    END IF;
    /* months_between takes the later date first */
    FOR i IN 0 .. months_between(end_date,   start_date) / 12
    LOOP
      dates.date_time := add_months(start_date,   i *12);
      pipe ROW(dates);
    END LOOP;
  WHEN 'wy' THEN
    IF end_date IS NULL THEN
      end_date := add_months(TRUNC(sysdate,   'YYYY'),   -3);
    END IF;
    /* months_between takes the later date first */
    FOR i IN 0 .. months_between(end_date,   start_date) / 12
    LOOP
      dates.date_time := add_months(start_date,   i *12);
      pipe ROW(dates);
    END LOOP;
  END CASE;
  RETURN;
END dates_between;