July 15, 2009
Here is the latest Crystal Reports tip from the Flexible Solutions GP Reports June 2009 newsletter: how to work with addresses. Dynamics GP (and probably many other systems) stores address components in separate fields, so if we look at a customer address window there are many individual fields that make up an address:
It is entirely possible that many of these fields will be blank, but we need to account for them on reports like customer invoices and statements just in case there are records where these fields are not blank.
If you simply add all the address fields individually to a report, here is what the report design will look like:
And the results would be:
To get the address to appear without any blank fields, instead of adding each field individually to your report, use a text object:
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Go to Insert > Text Object.
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Place the Text Object in the area where you will want the address and make it at least a few lines tall, you can always resize the text object as needed later.
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Drag each address field inside the text object in the order they should appear. Insert carriage returns and additional spacing or punctuation where needed between the fields:
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Right click on the text object and choose Format Text. On the Common tab check Suppress Embedded Field Blank Lines. On the same tab, Can Grow is also useful – this lets you make the text object the size of your typical address and if the address is larger, Crystal will automatically adjust the size of the text object and the rest of the report:
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Click OK and take a look at your results, they should now look a lot nicer:
For more Crystal Reports tips, check out the Working with Crystal Reports section on my GP Reports page. Past Flexible Solutions GP Reports newsletters can be found on the Flexible Solutions website. And if you’re looking to replace Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing (SOP) reports with Crystal Reports, take a look at this demo video.
Thank a ton! Very useful information
i Love this thank u very much i am search for this almost one week thank you…………………..
Thanks Victoria – I found this within seconds on Google and it saved me hours! BTW – your GP2010 implementation guide is fantastic as well! I can recommend it as required reading for any GP consultant.
Best Regards
Phillip
Phillip,
Thank you very much!
-Victoria
Brilliant solution, I have tried and tried to make the section expert do this without success.
Many thanks
If the “City” field is blank, I assume the comma will still show up? Other than a case statement and concatenation in the select statement that generates the data, is there any way around this?
Moonica,
Yes, if there is no City, the comma will still show up, as will the spaces between the fields. If you have data where you suspect the City will be blank, instead of hard-coding punctuation or spaces, you could create a formula like this:
if {TABLE.CITY} = “” then “” else “, ”
Then insert that formula into the text object instead of the actual comma and space.
-Victoria
Thank you Victoria!
Great Tip Victoria, Thanks!