Crystal Reports: Optional Date Parameter

Question

I'm a Crystal Reports beginner, and I'm working on a report where I'm trying to set up a date-range query with optional end points. So, for example, if the user picks a starting date, the report only includes results from after the starting date. Similarly, if the user selects an end date, the report only includes results from before the end date.

I am using the following filter, but the previewer keeps complaining that a date is missing. (In the testing I'm doing, I picked a start date and no end date. The previewer complains that I don't have an end date)

datevar start := IIF(HasValue({?Start Date}) and not isNull({?Start Date}), {?Start Date}, Date(1900, 01, 01));
datevar end   := IIF(HasValue({?End Date})   and not isNull({?End Date}),   {?End Date}, Date(3000, 12, 31));

({APPT.DATE} in start to end)

So, as you can see, the intention is to check if the report has the {?End Date} parameter defined. If it does, we use it. If it does not, we pick a "huge" date. But apparently, IIF requires the true branch to be defined even if it isn't used.

Is there a similarly clean way of encoding this logic with the Crystal reports language?

nomen nomen · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-16T22:36:10

In retrospect, this was a bit of a dumb question. But since I haven't been able to find an official language syntax specification, I'll post an answer.

The solution is to realize that the Crystal Reports language lets you define variables in terms of control statements, as in:

datevar end := if (HasValue({?End Date})) then {?End Date} else Date(9999,12,01);

Crystal Reports: Optional Date Parameter

1 Answers