Expert: Jean-Pierre Zuate - 12/15/2008

Question
QUESTION: Within the .FOOTER of an Ingres report, can I print the sum of absolute values of a numeric variable please, e.g. SUM(ABS(total)) ?

ANSWER: Hello,

The documentation say "yes you can", because I see examples like your's.

Extract from documentation (Character-based Querying and Reporting Tools
User Guide):
.footer report
.tab 10
.print 'TOTAL COSTS: ', sum("wholesale cost"),
('$------.zz')
.newline

Hope this help,
Jean-Pierre ZUATE
http://lafageconseil.fr

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your reply. However, as soon as I include the abs() function, I get this when the report runs:-
E_RW106D Bad column 'abs' specified for aggregate 'SUM'. Error occurred in
   footer text for 'report'. Line with error: 'println 'DEBIT TOTAL OF
   FILE:  ',SUM(ABS(goods))'.

Answer
As far as I know I suppose you can have 2 sql functions in an expression for .PRINTLN but there are no example like that in the documentation (only with 1 sql function).

Please try , as a workaround, to embed the ABS function directly in the SELECT ...

Hope this help,
Jean-Pierre ZUATE