Variables and Expressions: General Information

In the MYOB Advanced Report Designer, you can use variables to store values and substitute values in expressions. You can use expressions to define the values to be displayed in a report, or to specify report properties, such as group conditions and the visibility of sections or elements of the report. In expressions, you can use variables and user-specified report parameters. (For more information about parameters, see Parameters and Filters: General Information.) In the Report Designer, you can type an expression or you can compose it in the Expression Editor.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following in the Report Designer:

• Create a variable
• Specify an expression

Applicable Scenarios

You may want to use variables and expressions in the MYOB Advanced Report Designer in the following circumstances:

• You are responsible for the customization of MYOB Advanced in your company, including developing and modifying reports to give users the information they need to do their jobs.
• You may want to perform calculations on values before presenting them or transform the data in some way.

System and User Variables

System variables are available in all reports. These variables can be inserted into a report as values or included in expressions. The following table shows the system variables defined in the Report Designer.

A user variable is one that you specify for a report section. This variable is visible in all other sections of the report. If you declare the same variable in multiple sections, the variable is shared between them. If the variable is modified in one section, the new value of the variable is passed to the next section where the variable is used. The variable is initiated in the topmost section where it is used. Then the variable is sequentially modified in the following sections in the order in which these sections appear in the report.

Defining of a User Variable

To define a user variable, you use the Behavior > Variables property of the report section.

The variables have the $VariableName format, where VariableName is the name of the variable defined in the report.

The following example illustrates the use of the $RowNumber user variable in an expression.

=Assign( '$RowNumber', $RowNumber + 1 )

In a report, you can use a variable defined in a subreport. In this case, the variable has the $ReportName_VariableName format, where ReportName is the name of the report (that is, the subreport) in which the variable is defined. For example, suppose that you have defined the $pmt variable in the payment report. If you need to use this variable in the main report in your MYOB Advanced instance, you refer to this variable as $payment_pmt.

Addition and Deletion of a Variable in a Report Section

To define a variable, you use the ReportVariable Collection Editor (that is, the ReportVariable Collection Editor dialog box). To open the ReportVariable Collection Editor, you select the report section where you want to add the variable; then on the Properties tab of the Properties pane, you click the button to the right of the Behavior > Variables property.

If you are adding more than one variable in a section, in the ReportVariable Collection Editor, you should list variables in the Members list in the order in which they are calculated. For example, suppose that you have specified two variables—A and B. Also suppose that $B=F($A). In this case, A should be listed first and B should be listed second. To change the order of variables in the ReportVariable Collection Editor, you use buttons with arrows on the left of the Members list.

To delete a variable from the list of existing variables, you open the ReportVariable Collection Editor, select this variable in the Members list, and click Remove.

Processing of Variables and Property Values of Visual Elements

When you define a variable in the ReportVariable Collection Editor, the ProcessOrder property of the variable is set to WhileRead by default. The ProcessOrder property specifies when a variable value is processed during the generation of the report. A value can be processed when the data is read from the data source (WhileRead), when the report is printed (WhilePrint), or in both cases (Always). In most cases, when a value is read from the data source and then displayed in the report, WhileRead is sufficient.

The ProcessOrder property is also used for sections and visual elements. Once this property has been specified for a section, the property is applied to every visual element in this section unless it is overridden for a visual element. By default, the ProcessOrder property of the page header and page footer sections is set to Always. For other sections, WhileRead is the default value for this property.

You can specify the WhilePrint value for the ProcessOrder property if the value being calculated depends on data that will be known only at the report rendering stage. For example, suppose that you have added two text boxes to the page footer section. The Appearance > Value property of the first text box is Continued ..., and the Appearance > Value property of the second text box is =[PageOf]. The visibility of the Continued ... string depends on the page number and page count, which are calculated by using the PageIndex and the PageCount system variables. Both numbers for each page will be known only at the report rendering stage. Similarly, the page number, which is calculated by using the PageOf system variable, will be known only at the report rendering stage. Page numbers are typical data fields that require the WhilePrint processing mode. Thus, Always, which is the default value for the page footer section, is an appropriate setting. If you select the WhileRead setting for the page footer section, the Continued ... string will be printed on every page, and the page number will never be printed.