Adding Data Fields to a Report in Crystal Reports 2011

Adding Data Fields to a Report in Crystal Reports 2011: Video

This video shows adding data fields to a report in Crystal Reports 2011.

How to Add Data Fields to a Report in Crystal Reports 2011: Overview

Once you have a new report with a data source displayed in the report design view in Crystal Reports 2011, you will then need to place fields from the data source into the desired sections of the report to display the data. You use the “Field Explorer” to add data fields to the report from the connected data source.

In the “Field Explorer,” you actually have a few different ways to add data fields to the report. First off, you need to display the data fields from the associated table or data source. Click the small plus sign next to the “Database Fields” icon to display the table or tables within the underlying data source that you added to the report through the “Database Expert.” Click the small plus sign next to the name of the table whose data fields you wish to access. The fields of the table will then be displayed.

You can add one of the displayed fields to your report by selecting the name of the field that you wish to add to the report from the “Field Explorer” and then clicking the “Insert to Report” button (“Insert Fields” button in Crystal Reports 10 & 11) in the toolbar at the top of the “Field Explorer” window. You can then click into the report section where you wish to place the field.

Another way to add fields is to click and drag the field that you wish to add to the report from the “Field Explorer” into the desired section of the report. You may also simply right-click on the name of the field which you would like to add to the report, and then choose “Insert to Report” from the pop-up menu that appears. Then click into the report at the location where you wish to insert the selected field.

Most of the time, the data fields from the table will be placed into the “Detail” section of the report. Note that as you place the fields into this section of the report, Crystal Reports will add a text “header” for each field into the “Page Header” section. That way, when the report is previewed, you will see the label for each column of data at the top of the page and the associated data will be displayed once per record in the data source down the page, under the label.

To remove a field that you have added to a report, click on the actual field that you inserted to select it. Then you can simply press the “Delete” key on your keyboard to remove it from the report design view. Notice that deleting the field will also delete the field header that was also automatically added, as well.