Formula for text object?

Question

I'm looking a Crystal Report that someone else wrote (I'm very new to Crystal) and can't work out what a particular field is doing!

I see that you can look at the formula for a field by right clicking and looking at 'edit formula'. However, the option isn't there for this field (it's a text object I think). However, I know that that its value does change - but I can't find what it depends on.

How do I find this out? The text in the template starts with a '@' if that means anything.

Thanks!

Solution

Well, you seem to be off to a good start with Crystal, at least. 3 Possibilities come to mind:

1. You are looking at a "Field" object. In this case, you can try Right-click->Edit Formula. (except you already did that, so we can skip this step).

2. You are looking at a "Text Object" into which the previous designer dragged & dropped a Formula. In this case, Double-click the text object to find the complete name of the formula and look it up in the Field Explorer.

3. Many objects (including the 2 I just mentioned) allow you to overwrite the standard text based on whatever condition you like. I try to avoid this myself, but you can right-click->Format Field/Text/Whatever->Common and see if there is a custom formula for Display string.

Based on your description, #2 seems the most likely. Try that one first.

Comments

[OMill]

Oh, I see now. The "@SomeField" in the text object refers to a formula field SomeField, which I have now found in the field explorer. Thanks for your help :)