Show parameter information when report is empty

[CosmoKramer]

I have a report that is passed three parameters: start date, stop date, and dept_id. When there are no records for that particular department and date range, I would like a custom message to appear. Something like:
"There are no appointments for department: Cardiology"

I can display a hard-coded default message that doesn't contain the department name, when there is no data, such as:
"There are no appointments for the selected department"
but the user doesn't want that, they want to see the department they selected.

I tried adding a subreport that contained the department name field and I linked the id from the parameter dept_id field to the id field in that table. That only works when data is returned, not when there is no data.

Is this possible??

 

[TedLiu]

try pass one more parameter, department name, then use it in your message.

Ted

 

[CosmoKramer]

Unfortunately, I can't. I'm limited to those three fields that an application is passing to the report. That's why I thought since the dept_id is available as a parameter I could link that id in the subreport to the table that contains the department names, and display the name.

I can display the id parameter, so I know that it's available.....

 

[TedLiu]

--That only works when data is returned, not when there is no data.

data is in main report or subreport, if subreport, should be from dept_id where clause only?, right? if in main report, it shouldn't impact subreport.

Ted

 

[synapsevampire]

I think that I'm missing something, if you understand how to hardcode a default message, why not just append the {?Department} parm to it?

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[CosmoKramer]

That does work, but the parameter is an id field, they want to see the name assigned to this code.

In preview mode, I don't see the subreport I added. Now I just discovered that when I double-click on the subreport area, the subreport appears in its own preview window, with the correct department name. Why doesn't it show in the main report's preview window??