In ActiveReports, summary fields can be added to any section to calculate totals, counts, averages and other aggregations. The summary field's placement dictates when the section containing the field, and sections after it, will be printed. A section with a summary field will be delayed until all the calculations are completed. This allows summary fields to be placed ahead of the corresponding detail.

Summary fields are calculated according to the textbox's Summary properties. A summary textbox is updated with each new detail record. When a field is placed ahead of the Detail section (i.e. in the ReportHeader, PageHeader or GroupHeader sections), the Detail section is formatted with each record and the summary field is updated. When all records for the summary level are read, the header section is printed followed by the delayed sections.

This walkthrough illustrates how to create a report with a summary field in the GroupFooter section.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

• Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project
• Connecting the report to a data source
• Adding controls to the report to contain data
• Viewing the report 

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the NorthWind database (Nwind.mdb).

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have a report that looks similar to the following.

Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project

To add an ActiveReport to your project

1. Open a new project in Visual Studio.
2. Click on Project > Add New Item.
3. Select ActiveReports file and rename the file rptSumFields.
4. Click Open.

Connecting the report to a data source

To connect the report to a data source

1. Click on the yellow report DataSource icon in the Detail section. This brings up the report DataSource dialog box.
2. Click on Build...
3. Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click Next >>
4. Click on the ellipsis to browse for the access path to NWind.mdb. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate access path.
5. Click OK to continue.
6. In the Query field, type "SELECT DISTINCTROW Orders.*, [Order Details].*, Products.* FROM Products INNER JOIN (Orders INNER JOIN [Order Details] ON Orders.OrderID = [Order Details].OrderID) ON Products.ProductID = [Order Details].ProductID order by orderdate".
7. Click OK to return to the report design surface.

Adding controls to the report to contain data

To add controls to the report

1. Add a GroupHeader/Footer section to rptSumFields.
2. Make the following changes to the group header:
   • Change the name to ghOrders
   • Change the DataField to OrderDate
3. Add the following controls to the GroupHeader section:

   Control	Name	Text/Caption	Location
   Label	lblProductID	Product ID	1.208, 0
   Label	lblProductName	Product Name	2.489, 0
   Label	lblUnitPrice	Unit Price	4.56, 0
   Label	lblOrderDate	Order Date	0, 0

4. Add the following controls to the Detail section:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text/Caption	Location	Output Format
   TextBox	products.ProductID	txtProductID	Product ID	1.218, 0	(Empty string)
   TextBox	ProductName	txtProductName	Product Name	2.5, 0	(Empty string)
   TextBox	OrderDate	txtOrderDate	Order Date	0, 0	(Empty string)
   TextBox	products.UnitPrice	txtUnitPrice	Unit Price	4.562, 0	Currency

5. Add the following controls to the GroupFooter section:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text/Caption	Location	Misc Details
   Label	(Empty string)	lblSalesTotal	Daily Sales Total	3, 0	(Empty string)
   TextBox	products.UnitPrice	txtSalesTotal	Sales Total	4.562, 0	OutputFormat = Currency SummaryType = SubTotal SummaryRunning = Group SummaryGroup = ghOrders
   Label	(Empty string)	lblWhiteLine	(Empty string)	0, 0.25	Background color = white

Note   Distinct summarization can be used in a situation when the field's value repeats in several detail records and the summary function needs to include a single value from all repeating values. To do this, you would need to set the DistinctField property of the summary field to the appropriate value and set the SummaryFunc property to the appropriate distinct summary function.

Viewing the report

To view the report

1. Add the ActiveReports viewer control to a Windows Form.
2. Add the code needed to set the viewer document equal to the report document. See Using the ActiveReports WinForm Viewer for help.

Samples | Walkthroughs

 

 

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