Parameter Either Or

Hi

Background

I have a report that can be either date based (start and end dates, shows multiple jobs) or job number based (shows one job). Parameters all setup and it's working, it uses one SP. I have Allow Null selected for each of the three possible entry boxes. SP says IF JobNumber IS NULL Then Do this ELSE Do that

Problem

It looks messy. I have a label on the start date parameter "EITHER Please select a start date:" And a label on the job number parameter "OR Please select a job number:"

The user can then tick/untick NULL and enter either a date or a job number. Any way of making this work a little better? An initial parameter of report type > Job Number Or Date. Then just show the appropriate parameter for example. To do this I'd need to (I think) dynamically hide a parameter, can this be done? Any other ideas?

Cheers

Just have one parameter (string)

You can always use a code block to check formatting and provide msgboxs.

Then just convert the string to the required datatype|||

You can have three parameters. Use first one to decide whether you would want to run the report with parameter 1 or Parameter 2.

So, the out of three user will pick 2 parameters. and in the back end you will use the first one to decide which one to use and which one to discard.....

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Thanks for the replies. Adolf - I have 3 parameters so 1 free entry text box isn't really going to work for me.

TechQuest - I have no problem making it work in the back end, I want the front end to display either parameters start & end dates or parameter job number. If I have the initial parameter with options of Date Or Job Number. They select Date, how do I make just the Date parameters appear?

I may not understand exactly what you mean but you say the user will pick 2 out of the 3 parameters and the back end will sort it, but that's what I have now

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Unfortunately there is no way for you to achieve a much better user experience. RS does not allow you to show/hide parameters dynamically at run time.

What I suggest is maybe setting the value of the unused parameter something meaningfull to show that it should not be used. A lot depends on your current setup of the parameters i.e is job id a dropdown or a text box? Is date from and to date picker controls or textboxes?

So, based on the previous suggestions, I would say have the following:

Parameter 1 = Filter Type {Job ID, Date Range}

Parameter 2 = Job ID, I suggest you make this a dropdown of valid job ID's. When parameter 1 = Date Range populate this dropdown with just 1 value that says "N/A - Please select a date range".

Parameters 3 & 4 = You have a couple options here, if you make them date pickers then you can't set their values to to infomative text. You could if you make them text boxes but then you wouldn't get the nice functionality of a date picker.

Either way it's not going to be as nice as coding your own UI.

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Thanks for that Adam. At least I can stop searching for an 'nice' answer now as I know it's not possible. I'll go down the route you suggest.

Cheers

sql