I will apologize for the long post ahead of time but I want to give a fairly clear picture of what I am trying to accomplish in this initial post. I am also new to programming so my methods may seem a bit cumbersome. Any help is much appreciated.

I need to create up to 10 80-character lines per record (call them M records) in a text file. Each M record contains multiple fields and spaces that I am pulling from a database and has a set number of characters per field.

The M records are related to Mortgage Loan information. Records M05 through M08 are only needed if there are co-borrowers on specific loan (M05 = Co-Borrower #1, M06 = Co-borrower #2, etc.). If not, I need to suppress the line.

I have defined a formula for each piece of the specific M Record (including any necessary totext functions and spacing). For example, M05_02 is to have a length of 25 characters and contain the spouses first name. It contains the following formula: left({coborrow.spouse_fn}+Space(25),25)

The M05Record formula is a formula that is on the report and is embedded in a text box below the M04Record file. The formula in the M05Record is:
if {@M05_04}=space(9) then

   Space(80) //I have also tried '' rather than Space(80)

else
      {@M05_01}+{@M05_02}+{@M05_03}+{@M05_04}+{@M05_05}

M05_04 is the spouse SSN. If it is not present the formula returns Space(9), otherwise it returns the nine character ssn.

PROBLEM: In the text box, I have checked the "Suppress Embedded Field Blank Lines" but the report still has a blank line between the M05 and M09 record(I have not included M06-M08 in the text box yet). I don't want the blank lines showing up in the report if the data is not present.

I have tried 1 text box, 1 text box per M record, I have tried multiple detail sections with and without individual text boxes. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

CW

SELECT     REGEXP_REPLACE ( tester
                 , '(^|' || CHR (10) || ')' || CHR (10) || '+'
                 , '\1'
                 )
FROM     test_tab
;