nlim,
thanks for the reply. first, that is almost what i need. my custom group elements have valid filter values from the lookup tables, there is simply no rows in the fact table with those values. so the part with 2004 doesn't apply.
i did what you said and it worked in tutorial. i also added the CG 'Age Groups' across the column headers, to more closely replicate what i have. here was the SQL from tutorial:
select sum(a11.[ORDER_AMT]) AS WJXBFS1
from [ORDER_FACT] a11,
[LU_ORDER] a12,
[LU_CUSTOMER] a13,
[LU_DAY] a14
where a11.[ORDER_ID] = a12.[ORDER_ID] and
a12.[CUSTOMER_ID] = a13.[CUSTOMER_ID] and
a11.[ORDER_DATE] = a14.[DAY_DATE]
and (a14.[YEAR_ID] = 2000
and (YEAR(getdate()) - YEAR(a13.[CUST_BIRTHDATE])) < 25)
this returned a null value, which got changed to 0.
here was the SQL from my project:
select a12.LOAD_DATE LOAD_DATE,
count(distinct a11.PRS_LN_ID) WJXBFS1
from PRS_TBL_LN_PAYMENT a11
join PRS_TBL_LOAD_PERIOD a12
on (a11.TIME_ID = a12.TIME_ID)
where (a11.LN_OTS_DAYS_IN_DELINQUENCY >= 120
and a11.LN_OTS_STATUS_ID in (224))
group by a12.LOAD_DATE
this returned no rows. and the reason why, at least from the SQL, is that my query contained an additional criteria in the select clause and group by (LOAD_DATE). if you remove those two, the query would return a null. (going against SQL server, by the way). i don't know from a database perspective why this occurs.
so now if i go back to the tutorial project, and add the attribute 'Day' underneath the column CG and above the metric, the SQL passes contain a group by, and i am able to similarly break the tutorial example and get no value and hence no row in the report grid.