This is most likely a logic error on my part more than anything.

I have a report based on student absences. And I successfully got it to count all absences, per class, per student.

I was recently informed that they also wanted a count of the most recent continuous absences. As well as the greatest count of continuous absences.

For example let's say one of our students has 13 absences this semester. He missed 1 class, then he missed 8 classes in a row, then a few weeks later he misses 4 in a row. And he's present for the rest of the semester.

Greatest would be 8, most recent would be 4.

I thought I had a good working formula but they always return 0.

The report is organized like so: Group 1: Student, Group 2: Course, Group 2 Details: Recorded Attendance Dates and attributes.

In Group 2 Header - I have 1 formula
-------------------
WhilePrintingRecords;
global NumberVar TotalAbsent:= 0;
global NumberVar TotalConsecutive:= 0;
global NumberVar RecentConsecutive:= 0;
global NumberVar GreatestConsecutive:= 0;
-------------------

In group 2 details I have two formulas
-------------------
//Record Total Absences
whileprintingrecords;
global NumberVar TotalAbsent;
global BooleanVar DisplayAbsent;
//If Atnd_ID = Absent then increase total count
//If count is greater than our parameter
//Tell Group 1 to display
if {SR_STUD_ATTEND.ATND_ID} = "A" then
    TotalAbsent := TotalAbsent + 1;
    if TotalAbsent > {?Num of Absences} then
        DisplayAbsent = True
-------------------
-------------------
//Record Greatest Consecutive
WhilePrintingRecords;
global NumberVar TotalConsecutive;
global NumberVar RecentConsecutive;
global NumberVar GreatestConsecutive;

//If absent, increase Consecutive count
if {SR_STUD_ATTEND.ATND_ID} = "A" then
    TotalConsecutive:= TotalConsecutive + 1
//If not absent reset
else if TotalConsecutive > 0 then
        // If current consecutive count is greater than the last one
        if TotalConsecutive > GreatestConsecutive then
            GreatestConsecutive:= TotalConsecutive;
        //Assign last count to Recent
        RecentConsecutive:= TotalConsecutive;
    //Reset Total Consecutive
    TotalConsecutive:= 0;
-------------------

The final forumlas are placed in the Group 2 Footer. The footer is supressed if TotalAbsent is less than to the parameter for allowed absences.

The formulas simply return "TotalAbsent", "GreaterConsecutive" and "RecentConsecutive.

Again, TotalAbsent is returned properly. The GreatestConsecutive and RecentConsecutives are not.

Can anyone see anything potentially wrong with my method here?

Edited by levifiction - 02 May 2013 at 8:33am

Thank you very much. That seems to have worked perfectly.

I'm getting some odd results. It looks like at all times students miss exactly the same greatest and recent consecutive absences as total absences. This is expected in some cases, but it seems to be that way in all cases.

I'm using the details section of Group 2 as a sort of debug print view to slowly verify al 33,000 records. If it pans out, then this is a success.

:D

EDIT: I feel silly. It was sorting by the Attendance ID so all absences were right next to each other. Forced a sort by date and it's working perfectly.

Thank you again.

Edited by levifiction - 03 May 2013 at 5:27am