Stupid Total question

[patrickthatcher]

It's Monday and I'm being dense.  Let say I have a simple list report with 1 subtotal

F1    F2  Metric
A      1     100
        2     100
Sum        200

I now add a new field and want add a new subtotal as shown below.  Do I have to remove the current subtotals and re-add them?  Or can I just display the footer for the new subtotal, unlock the cells, and copy/paste the subtotal fields from the previous subtotal?  See....dense Monday morning type of question!  TIA

F1    F2  F3    Metric
A      1   
               x        50
               y        50
         1 sum    100

        2     a        50
               b        50
        s sum     100
Sum               200

[BigChris]

Not a dense question at all - I've had various problems with groupings and totals in the past, and my conclusion so far has been "it depends". If it does what it's supposed to do then it just works...but if it doesn't I've always had to go down the unlock etc. route.

I think it might come down to the settings in the Framework Manager, but I haven't managed to prove that yet.

[Lynn]

Sometimes I just unlock the report and get rid of the summary fields that get generated when creating sub-totals using the summarize tool on the toolbar. As long as the rollup aggregate function for the data item is set correctly you can just drag a copy of the data item itself into the group footer. It will aggregate based on the context of the group. This approach keeps the query cleaner vs. having all those other summary data items in there.

In fact I often just use the headers/footers tool to create my sub-total rows for the groups that I want and skip the summarize tool entirely because it throws a footer for every grouping that exists in the layout when perhaps I only want a footer for a particular one or two.

I think what Chris said is right ... not a dense question at all. There are so many ways to achieve the same result that it doesn't always matter which route you prefer to follow as long as you get there in the end. I'd add that in addition to a correct result that meets the requirement, a clean report that is easy to maintain is another good criteria to ensure you truly have arrived at the appropriate destination.

:)

[patrickthatcher]

Thanks Chris and Lynn.  The subtotal thing wasn't really something I worried about until I had a report with multiple subtotals that I had moved to header instead of the defaulted footer section.  It was easy enough to add the new break and copy/paste the summary values.

Thanks again!