Working with Parameter Fields in Crystal Reports

By default, the parameters are of the following data types:

• String. For entering alphanumeric text.
• Currency. For entering a number with two decimal places.
• Date. For entering a date in the format Month/Day/Year.
• DateTime. For entering a date as well as time in the format Month/Day/Year/ Hour/Minute/Second/AM or PM
• Number. For entering a number with variable decimal places.
• Boolean. For prompting the users for true or false response.

When you create a parameter, you can also define a prompting text that appears whenever the Parameter Field dialog appears. Once you have created a parameter field, then the standard notation for this field is the field name enclosed in curly brackets preceded by the question mark, that is, {?ParameterField}.
In order to create a parameter to used in the report, right-click on the Parameter Fields node in the Field Explorer windows and select New. The Create Parameter Field window will appear. You can type a parameter name, prompting text and choose data type (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

Let's add a range parameter field to introduce a department identifier range (see Figure 3). Now you can drag and drop these two parameter fields onto the report design surface and run the application.

Figure 3

When the application is running, then you're prompted for entering the parameter fields. For the Caption parameter field, we have (see Figure 4).

Figure 4