Grouping Information

Information is often more informative when viewed by group. For example, a report that groups event attendees by sponsor could be useful when planning events. In addition, you can use groups to perform calculations on data, you can count, sum, or perform other calculations on a field included in the group.

The InterAction out-of-the-box Contact List by Sponsor report is a good example of grouping. The report is grouped by Sponsor.

Contact List by Sponsor Report

How Sorting and Grouping Work Together

Typically, you want to sort information by the fields on which you are grouping. For example, a report that contains data for each contact may be difficult to use if you aren't displaying the contacts in alphabetical order by name.

Sorting is especially important when grouping information, however, because if you do not sort the data based on the fields by which you are grouping, your report may have unexpected results. The most common occurrence is that the same information appears twice on the report. For example, if you grouped based on contact name, but didn't sort based on contact name, you may see the same contact on the report multiple times.

TIP The important part of this step is to get similar data together. You do not always have to sort by the field on which you are grouping information. For example, many reports sort on contact name, but are grouped based on the contact ID.

If you are using multiple groups in your report, sort the data using multiple data fields.

For more information on sorting the data on a report, see New Contact Report Wizard: Sorting the Information.

Grouping by Unique_ID vs. Contact Name

Grouping information by contact is very common when creating reports. However, grouping by contact name is not always the best option. For example, you may have multiple people in your database named John Smith. If you were to group on contact name, all of the people named John Smith would appear as one contact in your report.

To avoid this problem, you should group the information by Unique_ID. Grouping by Unique_ID ensures that each unique contact is displayed separately, even if they have identical names. Unique_ID is a truly unique number because the Unique_ID number is generated using the firm contact ID and Source_ID fields as well as the user contact ID and Source_ID fields.

To group by ID, select Unique_ID in the DataField property for the group. Unique_ID is selected automatically to include in the report; you do not have to select it in the list of InterAction fields.

Even though you are grouping based on Unique_ID, sort the report based on contact name.

Adding a Group to a Report

  1. On the Sort step of creating or editing a report, ensure that you are sorting by the field by which you want to group information.

    For details, see New Contact Report Wizard: Sorting the Information.

  2. In the report detail area, right-click the report and choose Insert > Insert Group Header/Footer.

  3. Select the section header (GroupHeader1 for example) for the group.

  4. In the DataField property for the group, select the field on which you want to group information.

  5. In the report detail area, add the field you want to display in the GroupHeader section.

    You do not have to show the field you are using to group information in the group header. For example, many of the reports provided with InterAction group based on the contact’s Unique_ID, however the group header shows the contact's name.

Grouping in the InterAction Report Designer

[A] To group a section on the report, select the section header then set the DataField property to the field you are grouping by. You can group by a single field (for example, Unique_ID), or a concatenated field.

Report Grouped by Unique_ID

[A] Although the group is grouped by Unique_ID, the report is designed to show Full_Name in the GroupHeader section.

Adding a Group within a Group

  1. On the Sort step of creating or editing a report, ensure that you are sorting by the field by which you want to group information.

    For details, see New Contact Report Wizard: Sorting the Information.

  2. In the report detail area, right-click the report and choose Insert > Insert Group Header/Footer.

  3. Select the section header for the group.

  4. In the DataField property for the group, select the field on which you want to group information.

  5. In the report detail area, add the field you want to display in the GroupHeader section.

    You do not have to show the field you are using to group information in the group header. For example, many of the reports provided with InterAction group based on the contact’s Unique_ID, however the group header shows the contact's name.

  6. To control the order of groups, right-click the report and choose Reorder Groups.

InterAction Reports that Use Grouping

Many InterAction out-of-the-box reports use grouping. Refer to the following reports for examples.

InterAction Out-of-the-Box Reports that Use Grouping
Report Name Report is Grouped by ...
Contact List by Company Company Name
Contact Activities Unique_ID
Marketing Lists for a Contact Unique_ID
Contacts by Industry Industry
Activities by Type Type (Activity Type)
Activities by Originator Originator Name
Appointments by Type Type (Appointment Type)
Appointments by Originator Originator Name