HP Intelligent Management Center Standard Software Platform - Manual (Page 652)

Linking to/from a formula field
There are situations in which you may need to link to or from a formula
(calculated) field. For example, an employee ID could be an 11 character
value that consists of a two-character department code followed by the
employee's nine-character Social Security Number (for example,
HR555347487).
The formula language makes it easy to extract the Social Security Number
from this field:
{employee.EMPLOYEE ID} [-9 to -1]
- or -
{employee.EMPLOYEE ID} [3 to 12]
For the value HR555347487, either formula would return the value
555347487.
While the return value is a valid Social Security Number, the fact that it comes
from a formula prevents you from using the field to link to a Social Security
Number field in another table. You can report on and coordinate the values
in the two tables, however, by using a subreport.
To link to/from a formula field
1. Create the primary report using a table that includes the Social Security
Number field.
2. Create (or import) a subreport using the formula that extracts the Social
Security Number from the Employee ID field (for this example,
{@EXTRACT}).
See Inserting subreports .
3. Place the subreport where you want it to appear in the primary report.
4. Link the subreport to the primary report by linking the Social Security
Number field in the primary report ({file.SSN}) to the formula that extracts
the number in the subreport ({@EXTRACT}). See
Linking a subreport to
the main report without modifying the selection formula .
652 Crystal Reports 2008 SP3 User's Guide
Subreports 24
Using subreports with unlinkable data