Linking with a Formula Field

Filtering records in a subreport is also done using a formula field. There are two benefits to using formula fields: they give you more flexibility because formulas can be customized to parse or join multiple data fields, and they can link non-indexed fields from PC databases.

Being able to parse or join multiple data fields and use the results to link to a subreport is very helpful. It is a common task to have to link tables from two different programs together and the data isn’t compatible. This can happen when the programs were developed by different teams in the same company or when one company acquires another company and they have to consolidate their data. Formulas give you the flexibility to massage the data from one table into a format compatible with the data in another table. This can consist of converting the field to a different data type, concatenating multiple fields together or parsing a field to extract out the extraneous characters.

Subreports aren’t restricted to using indexed fields for linking tables. Linking with formulas lets you use any field in the table to link the two reports together.