recomendation for how to display data

[djc]

I am new to asp/ado (I'll be starting with that line for a few months I'm
sure!) and I need to learn a good way to display data from a recordset in a
nice 'report-like' fashion in Internet Explorer using asp/ado with vbscript.

Thus far I have just had to display records from a recordset in a table
(every row) and that was easy enough but now I need to make a page look more
like a report. I think it will be easiest to ask this by example:

recordset fields:
User
Sale
Make
Model
Price

example data:
'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Laserjet', '850', $100
'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Deskjet', '700cse', $75
'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'Epson', 'Photo', '1200', $225
'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Xerox', 'foofoo', '2112', $350
'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Sony', 'Trinitron', 'm70', $75

The recordset is produced from a particular 'Sale' entered as a parameter by
the user (via a form) so the 'Sale' will be the same for each record. There
could be 1 or several records with the same 'User'. Just displaying the
recordset straight into a table row for row is no good since I don't need to
display 'October Blowout' every time, or the same username multiple times. I
would like to group this by 'User'. The 'Sale' (October Blowout) would be
listed once at the top of the page as a report title. Then under that each
'User' should be listed once with the items and their prices (Make, Model,
Price) listed in line-item fashion. At the bottom of each user section I
would also need to display the total of all the item prices. That part I'm
sure is easy once I know how to lay this out. It should look something like
this:

October Blowout
Jsmith:
HP Laserjet 850 $100
HP Deskjet 700cse $75
Epson Photo 1200 $225
Total: $400

Rlake:
Xerox foofoo 2112 $350
Sony Trinitron m70 $75
Total: $425

etc.. etc..

I am afraid If I start thinking to hard I WILL find 'A' way to make this
happen but since this is new too me and I usually do my homework first so I
have a good idea of what I'm doing and this time I could not, it will
probably be an overly complicated and inefficient way! So I'm hoping someone
can lead me in the write direction?

?

[John Beschler]

What you are wanting is called a control break report. It
gets its name form the fact that you use a control filed
to condition your processing. (FWIW I learned this in a DP
concepts course at the local community college.)

Here's what you do:
Determine what fields will be your control breaks from
major to minor.
In your example they would probably be:
Major: Sale
Minor: user

Then, sort your data using the control fields, again,
major to minor:

ORDER BY sale, User

Next, declare a variable to hold the value for each
control field from the previous record.
When you process a record, compare the value in the
control field with the value in the field you stored from
the previous record. If they are the same, you process the
record as a normal detail line. If they are different, you
have a control break and you process the record
accordingly.

I hope that starts you down the correct road.

John

>-----Original Message-----
>I am new to asp/ado (I'll be starting with that line for

a few months I'm

>sure!) and I need to learn a good way to display data

from a recordset in a

>nice 'report-like' fashion in Internet Explorer using

asp/ado with vbscript.

>
>Thus far I have just had to display records from a

recordset in a table

>(every row) and that was easy enough but now I need to

make a page look more

>like a report. I think it will be easiest to ask this by

example:

>
>recordset fields:
>User
>Sale
>Make
>Model
>Price
>
>example data:
>'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Laserjet', '850', $100
>'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Deskjet', '700cse',

$75

>'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'Epson', 'Photo', '1200',

$225

>'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Xerox', 'foofoo', '2112',

$350

>'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Sony', 'Trinitron', 'm70',

$75

>
>The recordset is produced from a particular 'Sale'

entered as a parameter by

>the user (via a form) so the 'Sale' will be the same for

each record. There

>could be 1 or several records with the same 'User'. Just

displaying the

>recordset straight into a table row for row is no good

since I don't need to

>display 'October Blowout' every time, or the same

username multiple times. I

>would like to group this by 'User'. The 'Sale' (October

Blowout) would be

>listed once at the top of the page as a report title.

Then under that each

>'User' should be listed once with the items and their

prices (Make, Model,

>Price) listed in line-item fashion. At the bottom of each

user section I

>would also need to display the total of all the item

prices. That part I'm

>sure is easy once I know how to lay this out. It should

look something like

>this:
>
>October Blowout
>Jsmith:
>HP Laserjet 850 $100
>HP Deskjet 700cse $75
>Epson Photo 1200 $225
>Total: $400
>
>Rlake:
>Xerox foofoo 2112 $350
>Sony Trinitron m70 $75
>Total: $425
>
>etc.. etc..
>
>I am afraid If I start thinking to hard I WILL find 'A'

way to make this

>happen but since this is new too me and I usually do my

homework first so I

>have a good idea of what I'm doing and this time I could

not, it will

>probably be an overly complicated and inefficient way! So

I'm hoping someone

>can lead me in the write direction?
>
>?
>
>
>.
>

[djc]

wow. I'm smarter than I think I guess. That was pretty much the way I was
going to proceed but I figured I would be wrong. hehe. : )

Thanks for the info and the actual technicall name (control break report). I
do value that kind of info. Thanks!


"John Beschler" <giles@geewhiz.com> wrote in message
news:09f101c39a2a$593b5370$a401280a@phx.gbl...

> What you are wanting is called a control break report. It
> gets its name form the fact that you use a control filed
> to condition your processing. (FWIW I learned this in a DP
> concepts course at the local community college.)
>
> Here's what you do:
> Determine what fields will be your control breaks from
> major to minor.
> In your example they would probably be:
> Major: Sale
> Minor: user
>
> Then, sort your data using the control fields, again,
> major to minor:
>
> ORDER BY sale, User
>
> Next, declare a variable to hold the value for each
> control field from the previous record.
> When you process a record, compare the value in the
> control field with the value in the field you stored from
> the previous record. If they are the same, you process the
> record as a normal detail line. If they are different, you
> have a control break and you process the record
> accordingly.
>
> I hope that starts you down the correct road.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

> >-----Original Message-----
> >I am new to asp/ado (I'll be starting with that line for

> a few months I'm

> >sure!) and I need to learn a good way to display data

> from a recordset in a

> >nice 'report-like' fashion in Internet Explorer using

> asp/ado with vbscript.

> >
> >Thus far I have just had to display records from a

> recordset in a table

> >(every row) and that was easy enough but now I need to

> make a page look more

> >like a report. I think it will be easiest to ask this by

> example:

> >
> >recordset fields:
> >User
> >Sale
> >Make
> >Model
> >Price
> >
> >example data:
> >'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Laserjet', '850', $100
> >'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'HP', 'Deskjet', '700cse',

> $75

> >'jsmith', 'October Blowout', 'Epson', 'Photo', '1200',

> $225

> >'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Xerox', 'foofoo', '2112',

> $350

> >'rlake', 'October Blowout', 'Sony', 'Trinitron', 'm70',

> $75

> >
> >The recordset is produced from a particular 'Sale'

> entered as a parameter by

> >the user (via a form) so the 'Sale' will be the same for

> each record. There

> >could be 1 or several records with the same 'User'. Just

> displaying the

> >recordset straight into a table row for row is no good

> since I don't need to

> >display 'October Blowout' every time, or the same

> username multiple times. I

> >would like to group this by 'User'. The 'Sale' (October

> Blowout) would be

> >listed once at the top of the page as a report title.

> Then under that each

> >'User' should be listed once with the items and their

> prices (Make, Model,

> >Price) listed in line-item fashion. At the bottom of each

> user section I

> >would also need to display the total of all the item

> prices. That part I'm

> >sure is easy once I know how to lay this out. It should

> look something like

> >this:
> >
> >October Blowout
> >Jsmith:
> >HP Laserjet 850 $100
> >HP Deskjet 700cse $75
> >Epson Photo 1200 $225
> >Total: $400
> >
> >Rlake:
> >Xerox foofoo 2112 $350
> >Sony Trinitron m70 $75
> >Total: $425
> >
> >etc.. etc..
> >
> >I am afraid If I start thinking to hard I WILL find 'A'

> way to make this

> >happen but since this is new too me and I usually do my

> homework first so I

> >have a good idea of what I'm doing and this time I could

> not, it will

> >probably be an overly complicated and inefficient way! So

> I'm hoping someone

> >can lead me in the write direction?
> >
> >?
> >
> >
> >.
> >