You want to group your data in ways that aren't reflected by your database fields. For example, instead of grouping your regions alphabetically, or from the best-selling region to the lowest, you want to sort them geographically.
Specified order grouping enables you to create both the customized groups that appear on your report and the records that each group contain.
To specify the order of the grouping, select the field to which you want to apply the specified order grouping and then select in specified order.
The Specified Order tab appears at the top of the Insert Group dialog box.
On this tab, you can create custom group names and specify criteria for each. For example, you want to have two groups on your report, one for the Western Region and one for the Eastern Region. You could create these two groups by clicking the New button, then specify which states, provinces, or districts belong to each.
The order of the group names in this window is the order that they're printed on your report. You can reorder these groups by selecting the name and clicking the Up or Down buttons.
After creating a custom group, you must define which records belong to which group. You define this criteria in the Define Named Group dialog box. This dialog box functions exactly like the Select Expert.
Once you've created at least one custom group, a third tab appears on the Insert Group dialog box. This tab deals with the records that don't fall into any of the custom group categories. By default these records are included in a group called Others. You specify what to do with all the remaining records that don't meet any of the selection criteria of the custom groups in the Others tab.
Other Grouping Options
The other grouping options include:
- Discard all others
- This option removes all other records from memory and does not show them on the report.
- Put all others together, with the name:
This option enables you to specify a customized name for the "Others" group.
- Leave in their own groups
This option groups all remaining records based on the group criteria. For example, if TX didn't fall into either Western or Eastern, all records for Texas would be put into a group called "TX.".
You can create groups from either the Design or Preview windows. If you're in the Design window, you'll see the new Group Header and Group Footer areas surrounding the Details area. For each group you define, a new Group Header and Group Footer is created.
Hint
When you add a grand total, the grand total displays for all records selected by the Select Expert, not only for those showing on the report after creating specified groups. However, if you apply a specified order grouping and choose to discard others, your grand totals are correct, and calculate only the fields shown on the report.