I know that Reports have the ability to define a Variable Break level, but I haven't tested it yet to see if it acts differently than the older versions. In older versions a break by a variable would not automatically sort the way you want it to. I don't think in all my years of programming I have ever created a break on a variable.
Here's a description of the steps the report would go thru to figure this out, and you'll see why you will not get a good grouping by a variable (unless 7.6 acts differently): Let's say your table column is CustID, and you have defined a report variable vCustName that looks up the customer name from the lookup table. The report will first look at your Order By clause (if any) and breaks on columns to determine how to read the data in the table. If there is no Order By or break on a column then it will grab the data in any order it wants to, although usually in the order it is physically in the table. Starting at the first row it grabs, it will evaluate your vCustName variable and print that record as your first break grouping. Now it goes onto the next row of data, evaluate your vCustName variable for that -- if it's the same vCustName as above it goes in the same group. If it's different it starts its own group. So you can see that the groups will not work the way you probably wanted them to. As suggested by others, I create a view that combines the 2 tables and base the report off that. Karen > Kristie, > > Try creating a temporary table (or view), including a column containing the > values on which you wish to break, and base your report on that. You'll be > much happier! >
