report builder query - how to suppress output.

users
#1

Hi. I've been trying to get my head round report builder (it seems a very steep learning curve, ill-documented), and there's one issue that's eluding me - how to conditionally completely suppress output.

I'm trying to format an address book from material in a database. As usual, there'll be fields for name, 1st and 2nd lines of address, town, email, phone, etc.

I can do a simple-minded report using report builder, which looks at the moment to fulfil the need, except for one problem. When a database field is empty (eg, no email or no 2nd address line), is there any way of completely suppressing that line of output? I don't want pointless blank lines appearing.

It's exactly the issue raised at
https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/21488/base-report-builder-suppress-blank-lines/
but the linked solution on an OO web page doesn't seem relevant to LO -- (I can't find Insert > Section in this context).

I'm hoping I'm just missing something obvious - I'd be grateful for any pointers please. Also, is there a good tutorial around with examples for report builder?

Thanks.

#2

Hi Mike,

I can do a simple-minded report using report builder, which looks at the
moment to fulfil the need, except for one problem. When a database field
is empty (eg, no email or no 2nd address line), is there any way of
completely suppressing that line of output? I don't want pointless blank
lines appearing.

You could only suppress the output for a complete section of the report.
So the whole data of one row could be suppressed, not a "row of fields"
in the section "Details".

I'm hoping I'm just missing something obvious - I'd be grateful for any
pointers please. Also, is there a good tutorial around with examples for
report builder?

You could try to set the height of the fields to automatic height, but I
don't know if it would set the hight to '0' for the fields. See
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45789#c10

I have tried the documentation for ReportBuilder for the German
Base-Handbuch. You could find older translations here:
http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de/lo_hb_en/

Regards

Robert

#3

(originally sent from non-subscribed address; that seems to have vanished. Trying again with my subscribed list address)

Hi Mike,

I can do a simple-minded report using report builder, which looks at the
moment to fulfil the need, except for one problem. When a database field
is empty (eg, no email or no 2nd address line), is there any way of
completely suppressing that line of output? I don't want pointless blank
lines appearing.

You could only suppress the output for a complete section of the report.
So the whole data of one row could be suppressed, not a "row of fields"
in the section "Details".

Thanks for the reply.

I'm still 'all at sea', I'm afraid. I can't for the life of me see how to create a new section, never mind how to make it disappear conditionally.

The German translation you mention seems to be roughly what I've already seen; I've not found it helpful, I'm afraid.

Judging by the lack of other responses to my query, this must be a somewhat obscure part of LO. I think perhaps I'd better stick with my existing perl script I've been using to generate ODF documents from a spreadsheet -- seems easier to cut perl code than understand Report Builder. :frowning: :frowning:

#4

Hi Mike,

I'm still 'all at sea', I'm afraid. I can't for the life of me see how
to create a new section, never mind how to make it disappear conditionally.

When starting to edit a report you could see Pageheader, Details and
Pagefooter.
This are 3 sections of the report. You could add groups for everything
you will sort. So you could get more sections: a groupheader and, if you
have choosen, a groupfooter. Every new grouping creates new sections.

For every section you could choose an expression for a conditional
display (don't know, if the translation is right here). You could write
there something like
[Name]="Robert"
So the section will only appear when the content of the field "Name" in
your datasource is "Robert".

If this is obscure for you please write down you question a little bit
better. Might be I don't understand ist the right way - because my
knowledge of English is very obscure.

Regards

Robert