CR 2008 - Allowing BLANK value as Dynamic Parameter option

[Former Member]

I recently upgraded to Crystal 2008 from Crystal XI.
I have a report that has a Dynamic Parameter that allows all distinct values from a table to be available to select; One of the values was an actual blank value.

We need to be able to report by selecting the blank value. I don't want to set the parameter as Optional and return all values, I want to be able to run the report for JUST the blank values.  It appears Crystal 2008 just ignores blanks and doesn't allow you to select them as an option with a dynamic parameter.

Is there some setting that I can flip to allow a Blank value in the Dynamic Parameter?

[abhilash_kumar · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

CR doesn't allow blank values in a dynamic prompt.

Please have a look at the second option from my reply in this thread:

-Abhilash

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick reply Abhilash, I'll give it a try.
Very unfortunate they made that change in this version, as a blank value is a legitimate value in our case.  Just so happens we have NULL and actual blanks in this field.

Once I get it working I'll mark your answer as correct!

This worked - My adjusted command and formulas are below

2) Use a Command Object to populate the List of Values and add a wildcard entry, for e.g: !Blanks.

The query would look like this:

select distinct mr_grp, mr_grp as description from sxmr_maintren
UNION
select '!Blanks' as mr_grp, 'Blank Values' as Description
UNION
select 'ALL' as mr_grp, 'All Groups' as Description
order by mr_grp

Add this query using the 'Add Command' option and Don't Join it to the other tables.

Create a Dynamic prompt against the field in the Command Object and modify the record selection formula to:

(

//Crystal 2008 Logic for Blank or Null Fields, ALL, or multi-select


({?Group} = "!Blanks" and (isnull({Install_Rec.mr_grp}) OR {Install_Rec.mr_grp} = "") ) OR

{?Group} = "ALL" OR

{Install_Rec.mr_grp} in {?Group}

)