Control Break Programs, Version 2

July 28, 2004 Hey, Ted

Ken Orr taught me this one. Assuming an input file called SALES that contains the daily sales of all stores sorted by store number, department number, and, finally, sales person number. The file also contains item number and sales amounts.

This example shows where to print headers and footers of a report (excluding page headers and page footers), where to accumulate totals, and where to reset totals. The basic structure is a set of nested loops.

EVAL        CompanyTotal = 0
EXCPT       REPORTHEADER

READ        SALES

DOW         not %eof(SALES)

EXCEPT      STOREHDR
EVAL        StoreTotal = 0
EVAL        oldStoreNum = StoreNum

DOW         not %eof(SALES) and 
            oldStoreNum = StoreNum

EXCEPT      DEPTHDR
EVAL        DepartmentTotal = 0
EVAL        oldDepartmentNum = DepartmentNum

DOW         not %eof(SALES) and 
            oldStoreNum = StoreNum and
            oldDepartmentNum = DepartmentNum

EXCEPT      SPHDR
EVAL        SalesPersonTotal = 0
EVAL        oldSalesPersonNum = SalesPersomNum

DOW         not %eof(SALES) and 
            oldStoreNum = StoreNum and
            oldDepartmentNum = DepartmentNum and
            oldSalesPersonNum = SalesPersomNum

EXCEPT      DETAIL
EVAL        SalesPersonTotal = SalesPersonTotal + SaleAmount
READ        SALES

ENDDO

EXCEPT      SPFOOTER
EVAL        DepartmentTotal = DepartmentTotal + SalesPersonTotal

ENDDO

EXCEPT      DEPTFOOTER
EVAL        StoreTotal = StoreTotal + DepartmentTotal

ENDDO

EXCEPT      STOREFOOTER
EVAL        CompanyTotal = CompanyTotal + StoreTotal

ENDDO

EXCEPT      REPORTFOOTER

–Mike

The method you present is similar in philosophy to the one I presented, Mike, but it has been implemented with less code. I notice that control totals are reset before each group, as I like to do. The redundant tests on the do-while loops ensure that major breaks force minor breaks. I notice that your code doesn’t account for null values, but those tests could easily be added.

Thanks for sharing this example with other readers of Four Hundred Guru, Mike.

–Ted