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Expressions

Introduction

An expression tells Report Designer what information to include in a report. When the report is generated, each expression is calculated to produce a value. This value may come directly from the database, or be the result of further calculations on the information in the database.

An expression is a formula that can include:

• Numbers.
• Text.
• Variables, which are your data names and the table it belongs, such as REPORT.PAGE.
• Functions, used for complex mathematical processing such as string functions.
• Operators that can be words such as NOT or LIKE and symbols such as less than <, greater than >, or equal to =. They include wildcards such as %, which replace single or multiple characters and are used to search for values where there is more than one possible result.

There are some rules to follow when constructing an expression (see Q: Expressions and snippets). To help construct expressions, an Expression Editor is displayed when you work with expressions.

You can use expressions to

• Show information on the report.
• Filter the information that appears on the report.
• Highlight information in a report using conditional formatting.
• Divide information on the report into groups.
• Sort report information.
• Create criteria for a report to manage the data you want included each time the report is generated.
• Create a drill down target.
• Generate the email addresses a report should be sent to.
• Password protect a PDF document.
• Control the way the information appears and behaves on the report using properties.

Add an expression

To add an expression:

1. Select  Add Expression from the toolbar, or choose Toolbox > Add Expression.

2. Click the report where you want to add the expression.

   The Expression Editor appears.

3. To construct the expression drag and drop variables and functions from the right-hand panes into the left-hand pane.

Tip: You can view the values/information associated with a variable (as stored in your data) using the Expression Editor. Select the variable from the Fields pane, then click Show Field Values.

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