Crystal Reports Null Fields and Table Joining Problems

Message

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I am attempting to join 4 tables
together in a very simple 4 field report.  

The tables are joined like this:

EquipmentCircuit
TML

Equipment
Component
TML

The TML table connects to both the Circuit
     and Component table
The Equipment table connects to both the Circuit
     and Component table
The Circuit and Component table do not
     connect to each other
The Component-TML table link is optional. 
     That is to say that a TML record has a circuit parent and an equipment
     parent, but not necessarily a component parent.

The report is very basic.  Each Table has an "ID" field (Equipment.ID,
Circuit.ID, etc.). I'm attempting to display the ID fields
only.  

Another thing, the tables do not link to each other using the ID fields. 
Instead they use serial numbers (or sequence numbers) to make connections.

The problem is that when I attempt
to run the report, only the records that have Component IDs show up.  The records
that do not have Component IDs
associated with a TML ID are
suppressed.  I’d prefer if all my TML IDs would show up in the report.

I’ve tried many different approaches to solve my problem.  Here are some of the attempts I’ve made

1.     
Unlink the Component and TML table.  

a.      
This creates a ton of duplicate
records.  Using the table.field=previous(table.field) formula in the section expert
does not work correctly.  It pulls a
random Component ID into the report, not the one associated with the record.  Perhaps this has something to do with
unlinking the tables…and no, it doesn’t work if I link the tables back.

2.     
Using a if isnull() formula field

a.      
The formula field works but the
report will still suppress records or duplicate records depending on how my
links are set.

I’d appreciate any insight on how to create this seemingly
simple report.

Edited by prin1939 - 01 Feb 2012 at 4:42pm