Break Groups
Any Input Item in Report Builder can become a Break Group that will affect the structure of printed reports. Break Groups are typically used for the following purposes:
Structure the report along categories or sub-headers, for example, a sorted list of customers with group headers based on their country.
Display summaries and totals for a group of records, for example, the number of products in a product category.
Reset running totals when the break item changes, for example a partial sum within a category.
If an Input Item is defined as a Break Group, Report Builder will automatically add a header and a footer for this item above and below the Detail Block. Each break item will always have an associated header and footer in the report. The number of lines determine if these are visible or not when the report is filled.
The approach to define Break Groups in Stimulsoft Reports.Net is quite different. Any Input Item, Report Variable or Formula can become a break item. Break Groups in Stimulsoft Reports.Net are created by adding a Group Header or a Group Footer band to the report. The trigger to print the group band is defined in the Condition property of the Group Header/Group Footer. There is no separate definition of Break Groups that will lead to automatically generated blocks as in Report Builder. The lines within a block from the source report are being merged if possible. If a source block has to be split into several target bands, subsequent lines within the same block are created as a child band in Stimulsoft Reports.Net. Please refer to the documentation of Report Blocks for further information.
There is an important design implication for Stimulsoft Reports.Net.
There must always be a pair of Header/Footer bands in the target report. Even if just a group footer should be printed, the group header band must exist. This is explained in more detail in the Stimulsoft Reports.Net User Manual ("Nested Groups").
When reports rendering, you may use more than one grouping. For this you should put the required number of GroupHeader bands before the DataBand. After the Data put either the same number of GroupFooter bands or less. To each GroupHeader band you should specify the criterion of grouping. When report rendering, the GroupHeader bands are processed in order of their position on a page: top-down. The topmost band is processed first, then the one that is placed under the topmost one etc. When the GroupFooter bands placing it is important remember that the last GroupFooter band corresponds to the first GroupHeader band.
It is recommended to have equal numbers of GroupHeader and GroupFooter bands. If the number of GroupFooter bands is greater than GroupHeader bands, then the GroupFooter bands which are positioned lower than other ones will be used. Other bands will be ignored. If the number of GroupFooter bands is less than the number of GroupHeader bands, then the lowest GroupHeader bands which are placed closer to the Data band will be output without footers.
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