Aggregates

8. Working with RBF Report Specifications : Layout and Create Operations—Create New Report Components : Aggregates

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Aggregates

You use an aggregate function, such as sum or count, to calculate the value of a specified column up to the occurrence of a break. In RBF, an aggregate must appear in a footer for a report, page, or break. RBF calculates the aggregate value each time a break occurs in the specified footer.

The cut‑off point for data to be included in the calculation of an aggregate depends on whether the aggregate is simple or cumulative. For more information, see Simple and Cumulative Aggregates (see page Simple and Cumulative Aggregates).

The following table lists all of the available aggregate functions:

Aggregate Function:	Returns:
Any	1 if any data exists, 0 if none exists
Average	Mean average of all values in the column
Count	Count of all the values in the column
Minimum	Smallest value in the column
Maximum	Largest value in the column
Sum	Arithmetic sum of all the values in the column

Note these restrictions:

• If the aggregate column is numeric, all of these functions are available.

• If the aggregate column is a character or date data type, the any, count, minimum, and maximum aggregate functions are available. Additionally, you can take a sum of a date data type column, but only if date intervals (such as 1 day, 2 hours) are stored in the column. Taking a sum on absolute dates (such as December 13, 1988) results in an error.