Hi,
I've a report which has 10 static columns. It displays all the 10 columns at any given time even if 5 columns (out of these 10 columns) have all zero or null values which is an absolute waste.
So I want to make these columns dynamic, i.e. only those columns should be displayed which have at least one non-zero value and those columns should be suppressed which have all zero or null values.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Here's a suggestion, since you want something dynamic, it will take two passes through the data, one to determine which columns are blank and one for the report.

-SET &ECHO=ALL;

SET HOLDLIST=PRINTONLY
SET HOLDFORMAT=ALPHA
-RUN

DEFINE FILE CAR
DUMMY1/I6 = 0;
END
-RUN

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM
ACCEL/D15
DUMMY1/D15
ON TABLE HOLD AS H001
END
-RUN

-READ H001 &A_ACCEL.I15. &A_DUMMY1.I15.

-SET &REP_LINE = IF &A_ACCEL GT 0 THEN 'ACCEL' ELSE '';
-SET &REP_LINE = IF &A_DUMMY1 GT 0 THEN 'DUMMY1' ELSE &REP_LINE;

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT
&REP_LINE
HEADING
"WEBFOCUS REPORT"
ON TABLE SET PAGE NOLEAD
ON TABLE SET HTMLCSS ON
ON TABLE SET STYLESHEET *
BORDER=1, BORDER-COLOR=SILVER,
FONT='ARIAL', SIZE=8, $
END

Shankar

Please update your signature so we all know what version you are using.

To answer your question, I would first put the data into a hold file, then test if the values are worth to be displayed by summing the absolute value.
if the absolute value per field is not zero it should be displayed

-SET &ECHO=ALL;
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM SALES RETAIL_COST COMPUTE ZERO=0;
BY COUNTRY
ON TABLE HOLD
END
DEFINE FILE HOLD
DUMMY/A1='';
ASALES/D10=ABS(SALES);
ARETAIL/D10=ABS(RETAIL_COST);
AZERO/D10=ABS(ZERO);
END
TABLE FILE HOLD
SUM  ASALES
 ARETAIL
 AZERO
ON TABLE HOLD AS NPR FORMAT ALPHA
END
-RUN
? HOLD NPR
-READ NPR  &PRSAL.I10. &PRRET.I10. &PRZER.I10.
-TYPE &PRSAL &PRRET &PRZER

-SET &PR1=IF &PRSAL EQ 0 THEN 'NOPRINT' ELSE '';
-SET &PR2=IF &PRRET EQ 0 THEN 'NOPRINT' ELSE '';
-SET &PR3=IF &PRZER EQ 0 THEN 'NOPRINT' ELSE '';

TABLE FILE HOLD
SUM SALES &PR1
RETAIL_COST &PR2
ZERO &PR3
BY COUNTRY
END
  

Hi Francis,
This solution looks fine but perhaps it wont be feasible for my report as i've about 25 columns in my report with about 10 BY clauses and 2 ACROSS clauses.
Is there some alternate way ?

Forgot about the absolute value! and your way is a little cleaner.

Francis

If you have a country with +1000 and one with -1000 the sum is zero....
so I need the abs value.

when using 10 by and 2 across values the solution will be a bit more complex, but it would still be a possibility