"n/a" versus "null"

[2004 IR Help]

By: deklotz - yourspeedracer

"n/a" versus "null"

2005-06-09 11:50

Is there an easy way to have "n/a" fill a cell instead of the default "null" when the data object is null?

 

I personally do not like the option of "isBlankWhenNull="true". It just doesn't look right to me.

 

If possible I want to avoid using something like :

 

(($F{COLUMN_13} == null) ? "n/a" : $F{COLUMN_13})

 

as this means I lose the built in number formating (for when there is a real number present).

 

Any help is greater appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: C-Box - c-box

RE: "n/a" versus "null"

2005-06-09 23:20

Well, as there is an attribute "BlankWhenNull" you could easily change the piece of source in JasperReportsSourceCode where the blank-string is replaced against the null-value.... so there you could put "n/a" instead of "" .... but you should do that modification everytime you update to a new JasperReports-Version.

 

Perhaps you can make a FeatureRequest, where you could suggest to introduce a "ReplaceStringWhenNullValue" Variable where everyone can print what he want's if a field returns null.

 

Otherwise the only solution I know is the if-then-else statement you also posted but don't want.

 

hth

C-Box

 

 

 

 

By: kootjekip - kootjekip

RE: "n/a" versus "null"

2005-06-10 04:37

I dislike some things to but it is there so I try to live with it, because someone dislikes something, it's not needed to rewrite the application for thousands of users.

 

 

 

 

By: Mike Warne - mwarne

RE: "n/a" versus "null"

2005-06-16 18:12

If the formatting is the big issue, create a variable that is a NumberFormat or NumberFormatter instance.

Then use that Variable to format your number. I have done this with Dates sometimes using SimpleDateFormat

eg

$F{Col2} == null?

"Not Available":

$V{formatter}.format($F{Col2})

 

Mike