Occasionally reports need to be printed in date order - with 1 (or
more) records for each day. For example a Daily Hours Report prints
a record for each day. However if a record does not exist
for a day then that day will be skipped in the report. Also
it is difficult (without using the Dates file ) to print Errors
amongst the Daily Hours at their correct Date position.
Details
The dates file is simply a file which contains a record for
each day. Thus is can be used as a Parent file in a report
so that child files can be printed for each day. For example
Primary File : Dates
Loop Through Daily Hours
Detail
Loop through Errors
Detail
and so on. One complication is that you may not want the dates
file to be the Primary file for the report. A more likely
layout would be
Primary File : Employee
Loop through Dates
Loop Through Daily Hours
Detail
Loop through Errors
Detail
However there is no link between the
Employee
File, and the Dates file. In this case the Dates file is
a Parentless file. To make a Parentless file do the following;
A) Add a Secondary Loop record as normal.
B) Click on the ? button next to Parent File.
This takes you to the Override Parent File screen.
C) Select None from the list. Although the list is in alphabetical
order, None is at the very bottom. Select Ok.
D) On the Update Report Details screen there is now a Drop
down list for you to select the order. As this file is not related
to the parent file you have to select the key to use.
E) Click on the Edit Detail button to set the range for the file.
As this file is not related to any Parent it is important to set
the whole range and filter here. For the Dates file this is
typically FromDate and ToDate.
