Crystal Reports  

Automatic Type Conversions (Crystal Syntax)

Generally in Crystal Reports, values of one type cannot be used where values of another type are expected without explicitly supplying a type conversion function. For example:

Local StringVar postalCode;
//Error- assigning a Number value to a String
postalCode := 10025;
//OK - use the type conversion function CStr
//to create "10025"
postalCode := CStr (10025, 0);

However, there are a few conversions that are made automatically:

For example, the following assignments are correct:

Local CurrencyVar cost;
//Same as: cost := $10
cost := 10;
Local DateTimeVar orderDate;
//Same as: orderDate := CDateTime (1999, 9, 23, 0, 0, 0)
orderDate := CDate (1999, 9, 23);
Local NumberVar Range aRange;
//Same as: aRange := 20 To 20
aRange := 20;
Local NumberVar Range Array aRangeArray;
//Same as : aRangeArray := [10 To 10, 20 To 25, 2 To 2]
aRangeArray := [10, 20 To 25, 2];
Note   The opposite conversions are not allowed. For example:
Local NumberVar num;
num := 5 + $10; //Error
//OK- convert to Number type using the CDbl function
num := CDbl (5 + $10) //Could also use ToNumber

5 is converted to $5 and added to $10 to make $15. However, this Currency value cannot be automatically assigned to the Number variable num since automatic conversions from Currency to Number are not allowed. Similarly, functions accepting a Currency argument can be supplied a Number argument instead, and the Number argument will be converted to a Currency, whereas functions accepting a Number argument cannot be supplied a Currency argument without first explicitly converting the Currency to a Number using CDbl.

See Also

Variables | Simple Data Types | Range Data Types | Array Data Types