Sorting Data

January 22, 2008, 11:30 AM

Majid Jeddi

Sorting Data

Hi,

Is it possible to sort a report based on a field that is not used in a group by and which is not displayed on the report but part of the data source?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Majid.

January 22, 2008, 11:34 AM

Tony A

BY fieldname NOPRINT

T

In FOCUS since 1986	WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
	WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10

January 22, 2008, 02:26 PM

Majid Jeddi

Hi Tony,

This is the equivalent in the GUI of adding the field then make a group by and make it invisible.
If yes, that means I need to add the field to the report then make it invisible.
I wanted to know if it is possible to sort on a field that is part of the data source but i do not want it to make it a by field.

Thanks.
iS that possible.

January 22, 2008, 03:57 PM

Darin Lee

The answer would be NO. The ability to sort in WebFOCUS is based on the use of BY. That's a pretty basic principle. What is the problem with making it a BY field?

Otherwise you can run a query and ON TABLE HOLD then it is sorted for the final report but you don't have to use a BY field in the final report - but this all seems pretty useless.

Regards,

Darin

In FOCUS since 1991
WF Server: 7.7.04 on Linux and Z/OS, ReportCaster, Self-Service, MRE, Java, Flex
Data: DB2/UDB, Adabas, SQL Server Output: HTML,PDF,EXL2K/07, PS, AHTML, Flex
WF Client: 77 on Linux w/Tomcat

January 22, 2008, 04:03 PM

Tony A

Majid,

Tell me, in MS SQL can you have an ORDER BY phrase without the column being in the data? Same thing.

T

In FOCUS since 1986	WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
	WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10

January 22, 2008, 04:35 PM

FrankDutch

Majid

You can use FML.

	*Frank*
	prod: WF 7.6.10 platform Windows, databases: msSQL2000, msSQL2005, RMS, Oracle, Sybase,IE7 test: WF 7.6.10 on the same platform and databases,IE7

January 23, 2008, 01:19 AM

Majid Jeddi

Hi Tony,

in sql server you can sort on a field which is not part of the data returned.
in the other hand, the reason for what I am asking that is because in other reporting tool you can create a report and sort it based on a field which is not displayed.

Thanks.

Majid.

January 23, 2008, 02:24 AM

Tony A

quote:
... and sort it based on a field which is not displayed.

because under the covers it is used like WF uses it in a NOPRINT. In WF you just have to do that yourself.

T

In FOCUS since 1986	WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
	WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10

January 23, 2008, 02:43 AM

Alan B

Majid

Data can be read from a data source in 3 ways:
1. Following the primary key sequence
2. Physically from the beginning
3. Via an index

If the data returned by any of these methods is in the order you need, then a sort will not be required, otherwise, the field you are sorting on MUST be retrieved from the data, whether the request indicates this or not. WF hides this with a NOPRINT, other tools may do it under the cover.

January 23, 2008, 08:13 AM

Majid Jeddi

Hi,

Thanks to all of you for the valuable explainations you gave regarding this subject.

Regards.