Defining a Report Record Selection

A record selection is a condition that you can select when you run the report. The program accesses only the records that satisfy the selection criteria.

If a report has one or more record selection conditions, you must define a record selection parameter field for the report. For more information, see the Record Selection Parameter field description in Parameter Field Types.

The Report Select field on the Parameter Definition form example in Parameter Field Types lets you type one of two record selection conditions. The following example shows these two record selections (Out Of State and In State). The In State selection is highlighted, so you can also see the condition associated with it.

If you type "I" in the Record Select field on the Parameter Definition form, the program processes only the Employee records that meet the condition associated with the In State record.

If you type "O" in the Record Select field on the Parameter Definition form, the program processes only the Employee records that meet the condition associated with the Out of State record select.

To define a record selection

  1. On the Database Structure-Program Structure form, select the task for which you want to define a record selection, press Define (F6), and choose Record Selections.

    The Define Selects window appears.

  2. If the window is empty, press Select (F4) and go to step 3; otherwise, the currently defined record selections appear in the window. To update these, go to step 5.
  3. If no conditions are currently defined, the Records Will Be Selected window displays. To define a condition, go to step 6.
  4. If there are existing conditions you can either choose New Condition to define a new condition and go to step 6.

    - or -

    Choose an existing condition and press OK. The system chooses the condition for the record selection.

    To add another record selection, go to step 7; otherwise, press OK again to save the selection and return to the Database Structure-Program Structure form.

  5. To modify or replace an existing record selection, select the condition name in the Define Selects window, press DefineĀ (F6), and choose Modify or Replace, respectively.

    You can also delete a record selection at this point. Highlight the condition name in the Define Selects window and press Delete (F9).

  6. In the Records Will Be Selected window, define a new condition, or change or replace an existing condition. For instructions, see Defining Conditions for Objects.

    The system displays the condition name in the Define Selects window and the condition in the Records Will Be Selected window.

  7. To add another record selection, press Insert (F8) and choose an existing condition or choose New Condition and go to step 6.
  8. When you are finished defining record selections, press OK.

    The system saves your definitions and returns to the Database Structure-Program Structure form.