Crystal Reports review questions

Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide

Crystal Reports Skills Test - Intro
(for answers Email quiz1@kenhamady.com )

1) In which of the 7 report sections would you normally find Grand Totals?

2) In which of the 7 report sections would you normally find Column Headings?

3) Where in the menu do you go to find fields like Page Number and Print Date?

4) If my report's records are currently in random order, and I want them in ascending date order, I can use one of two techniques. What are they?

5) One of the techniques in Question #4 adds features to the report that the other does not. What are the 3 features that are added automatically?

6) What is the most common reason for having or adding a group to a report?

7) If I insert or drag the Order ID field onto the group header, which Order ID will I see for each group?

8) What menu selections do you use to add a group?

9) What menu selections do you use to delete a group?

10) What menu selections do you use to change a group from Customer Name to Order Date?

11) What is the difference between Hiding a section and Suppressing a section?

12) What menu selections do you use to change your report to only include the top 5 groups?

13) You turn off ________ so that you see pound signs when numbers outgrow their cells, rather than simply losing digits.

14) What menu selections do you use to add a page break to a report?

15) If I move a Cross-Tab from the report footer to the group footer, 2 things change about the Cross-Tab. One is that it appear more often., what is the other?

16) What is the difference between a count and a distinct count?

17) What menu selections do you use to limit a report to only including records from one country?

18) I have a report in random order, and I want it in date order, and I want a heading for each date. What are the menu clicks to accomplish this?

19) I have a report in random order, and I want it in date order, but I don't want to create headings for each date. What are the menu clicks to accomplish this?

20) The record selection formula must always be what type of expression, or what data data type.

21) If I use the TopN feature and don't check the "Include Others" property, what number on my report might be misleading?

22) What menu selections can you use to add another table to the report?

23) What menu selections do you use to change the link between two tables in the report?

24) When you connect the customer's table to the orders table (one-to-many), it will be easier to do an accurate sum from one table. Which one?

25) If you draw your link arrow from Customer to Orders, which one is considered the "Left Table"?

26) You are using ODBC. You link from the Customers table to the Orders table and don't change the join. Will a customer with no orders appear in the report?

27) When you write a formula to connect or "concatenate" two text fields or text strings, what symbol do you put between them?

28) How would you put the following date - 07/04/2003 - into a formula, so that it is recognized as a date value?

29) How would you put the following word - Continued - into a formula, so that it is recognized as a character string?

30) If you have a formula field, and some of the values are coming up blank, what are you likely encountering?

31) What function helps you deal with the problem mentioned in Question 30, within a single formula?

32) Where in the menu can you go to solve the problem mentioned in Question 30 in one entire report?

33) If I write an IF-THEN formula with a Boolean value after the IF and a Character value after the THEN; what type of value must come after the ELSE?

34) If I want a formula to only use the first 3 characters of a field, what should I put after the field to indicate this?

35) Is the following formula going to print a subtotal or a grand total?    Sum ( {Orders.Order Amount} )

36) What function do you use to automatically put today's date in a formula?

37) When you are in the select expert, how do you get the date range functions (such as YearToDate and LastFullMonth) to appear?

38) When you are in the formula editor, what operator or word do you use just before a date range functions (such as YearToDate and LastFullMonth)?

39) Is the following expression a valid Crystal formula? If it is valid, is it true or false:      50 in [ 40 , 60 ]

40) Is the following expression a valid Crystal formula? If it is valid, is it true or false:      50 in 40 to 60

Crystal Reports Skills Test - Advanced

(for answers Email quiz1@kenhamady.com )

1) What menu options do you use to put your groups into "specified" order, (not ascending/descending/TopN)?

2) What wildcard characters can you use with the Like Operator?

3) What characters do you use to comment out a line of a formula?

4) What function allows you to determine where one string occurs within another string?

5) What function allows you to determine how many characters are stored in a single field value?

6) What is the best function for changing a number stored in a text field into a true numeric value?

7) What Crystal function word can help you print "...Continued" at the top of the second page, when a group goes past the first page?

8) T / F - I would need an IF-THEN formula to conditionally suppress a field or section that was less than $50?

9) T / F - I would need an IF-THEN formula to have the negative values print in RED and positive values print in BLACK?

10) If I have 2 Cross-tabs in the report header, how can I prevent the bottom of one from growing over the top of the other?

11) In which two sections would you normally find an unlinked subreport?

12) How do you reopen the subreport links window to change the link between the main report and an existing subreport..

13) If I have a cross-tab in the report header, is it affected by changing the grouping of the report?

14) If I have a cross-tab in the report header, is it affected by changing the record selection formula of the report?

15) If I have a cross-tab in the report header, is it affected by changing the group selection formula of the report?

16) If a formula has variables, what do you put at the end of every phrase to separate them?

17) What are the last three letters of the operator words used to declare all variables.

18) What 2 character combination do you use in a formula to store a value into a variable?

19) A formula stores a value into a variable. What is the easiest way to make it happen only once per group?

20) If you were creating a running total using variables, would you normally use WhilePrintingRecords or WhileReadingRecords?

21) What type of parameter field will always print a blank when placed on the report, "discrete values", "multiple discrete values", "range values"?

22) How does the user get their parameter field prompts to appear again?

23) Which is more likely to slow the report down the most, a chart, a cross-tab or a subreport?

24) If a report is grouped by Customer what type of chart allows me to have a bar or slice for each Month?

25) If I am exporting to CSV, should I leave the column headings visible in the page header or suppress the page header?

26) I use TopN without checking "include others". What is the easiest way to get an accurate grand total of this report?

27) Which variable "scope" allows me to share a value from a subreport to the main report?

28) T / F - a subreport will still run if it is placed in a section that is suppressed.

29) T / F - a formula that stores a value to a variable will work the same in a suppressed section as a visible section.

30) T / F - a formula that assigns a value to a variable will work the same no matter which section of the report it is placed in.

31) If you open a report, and it immediately previews before you do anything, what does that mean?

32) You use "Database - Show SQL Query" to view the SQL statement. Can you change the SQL here?

33) Which has a longer function list, the SQL expression editor or the formula editor?

34) If you can get the same output from a Crystal SQL Expression field as you can from a Crystal formula field, which is usually the most efficient?

35) If you want Crystal to change the SQL SELECT clause to use SELECT DISTINCT, what would you do?

36) T / F - when you underlay a section, it makes all of the objects in that section invisible.

37) T / F - You create report A and then insert it into report B as a subreport. Changing the subreport inside report B will also update the original Report A.

38) I use an automatic running total field to create a grand total. Can I show this grand total at the beginning of the report, or only at the end?

39) I created a parameter field with a drop down list of Products. Can I make this list automatically update for new products using just Crystal Reports?

40) If I want to base my report on a SQL statement that I write myself, what do I need to create?