database

Crystal reports processes different parts of the report in a fixed order that one must understand [to some degree] to understand what you can't do in Crystal.

Crystal reports is lacking a great deal of functionality which seems like an obviously desirable addition. One of these items is the ability to display report results with lines whose background colors alternate, much like the fanfold computer paper of old, or for that matter a check register or just about any other traditional method of rendering data in rows. Business Objects provides a document that tells you how to go about this (C2014182) but for some report types, especially those with nested groups, this doesn't necessarily work properly.

When writing a report, the first thing to consider is what you're trying to report on. That tells you what tables you will need to include in your report. The Second thing is to figure out what to filter. Sometimes the answer is nothing, when you want to work with all records. Usually, though, you want to filter out some records. Maybe you only want to look at records pertaining to this year - this would typically require only a single item.

Crystal Reports is a database reporting tool that has over time become the standard for reporting. It is by far the most used tool to perform this task, in spite of the fact that it sucks eggs. Crystal has so many failings it's hard to know where to start talking about them; but I think I'll manage somehow.