Suppressing repeating values

When you sort on a column, there might be several rows with the same value in one column. You can choose to suppress the repeating values in that column. When you suppress a repeating value, the value displays at the start of each new page and, if you are using groups, each time a value changes in a higher group.

You can select columns for which you want to suppress repeating values in the Specify Repeating Value Suppression List dialog box.

Figure 22-3: Selecting columns for suppression of repeated values

The sample shows the Specify Repeating Value Suppression List dialog box. At top is an instruction to drag and drop from the Source list to the Suppression List. At left below this is the Source Data box showing a list of columns. At right is the Suppression List box to which you can drag columns whose repeated values you want to suppress.

Figure 22-4 shows a DataWindow with a list of employees sorted by department ID. In this figure, all but the first occurrence of each department ID has been filtered out.

Figure 22-4: Filtering out repeat values for the dept_name column

The sample shows a page with the column headers Department, Name, and Salary. Under Department, the department name Finance appears once for multiple rows of data. Its repeating values have been suppressed.

To suppress repeating values:

Select Rows>Suppress Repeating Values from the menu bar.

The Specify Repeating Value Suppression List dialog box displays.
Drag the columns whose repeated values you want to suppress from the Source Data box to the Suppression List box and click OK.

You can remove a column from the suppression list by simply dragging it and releasing it outside the Suppression List box.