Sort Columns and Breaks
To specify the order in which your report must print the data, you can designate certain data columns as primary or subordinate sort columns. For instance, if you specify the Company column as the primary sort column, and the Department column as the next subordinate sort column, the report will organize the data first by Company, and then by Department within each Company.
A break marks a change in the value of a report column that is designated as a sort column. For instance, in the previous example, a break occurs each time RBF encounters a new department name in the Department column. You can designate how the report must indicate a break. For example, you could instruct RBF to suppress duplicate department names in the Department column and to start a new page for each new department name. Breaks are helpful for presenting data in logical divisions that are easy to read.
To indicate a break you can:
• Suppress duplicate values in a sort column and print a value only when it changes.
For instance, in the following example, the company name prints only once and is not repeated for each of its departments:
RB Associates Development
Personnel
Sales
Support
Weston, Inc. Accounting
Marketing
• Start a new page each time a value in a sort column changes.
• Create a break header to indicate the beginning of a group of related rows that have the same value in the sort column.
• Create a break footer to indicate the end of a group of related rows that have the same value in the sort column.
• Create an aggregate in a break footer to calculate a subtotal or to otherwise summarize information up to the break.
An example of a break is shown in the indented report style figure. The Dept (department) column is a sort column. Each time the department name changes, RBF prints a break header containing the department name.
Default RBF report styles have predefined sort columns (usually the first column only) and predefined break actions associated with each sort column. To customize the report, you must specify additional or different sort columns and break actions. For details on using breaks, see the chapter "Working with RBF Report Specifications."