How do you print specific pages in Cognos using conditional variables - conditional-statements

Question

I have five letters (five pages) in a Cognos report. The letters are in response to NSF checks received by the company . Each letter is different based upon conditions that exist in the NSF file. I need to print those letters based on those condtions. For example -- if the customer I has never had an NSF check. I want to print a nice letter ( page 1). If the customer has had other NSF check then letter 2 ( page 2 ) and so on. I have created the following variable --
IF [Main].[RETURN_REASON_CD] = 'FINAL' Then '1' Else (
IF [Main].[RETURN_REASON_CD] = 'FIRST' AND [Main].[METHOD_OF_DRAFT_OVR] = 'ACHDA' Then '2' Else (
IF [Main].[RETURN_REASON_CD] = 'FIRST' AND [Main].[METHOD_OF_DRAFT_OVR] <> 'ACHDA' Then '3' Else (
IF [Main].[RETURN_REASON_CD] NOT IN( 'FIRST', 'FINAL') AND [Main].[METHOD_OF_DRAFT_OVR] = 'ACHDA' Then '4' Else '5')))
What do I need to specify in values 1,2,3,4,5 to get this to print correctly. Thanks

Answer 1

I suggest you create five boolean variables, then go to the page explorer, click on the Report Pages folder, which will then show you a list of your five pages. Click on each of your pages and set the Render variable.
When the Render variables evaluates to TRUE, your page will be rendered. When it's false it will not.
There is probably a way to do this using one variable as you have done but I can't think of it right now. You might want to look into page sets. Or you could compress all the pages into one page and use a conditional style to hide each piece.

Answer 2

You can use a single page with a conditional block, so you only need one string variable with five different values instead of five boolean variables.

Answer 3

Create one variable that has a case expression like yours...
Case
When Expr 1
Then "Show Page 1"
When Expr 2
Then "Show Page 2"
etc...
else "Show All Pages" or whatever you want to do with your else
End
You need to make sure the literal values are listed exactly as output values on the variable page. This is important.
Start with report page 1 and switch to structure view that way it is easy to navigate up to the Page object. Once your in the page object i believe there is a render variable and/or conditional style depending on your Cognos version. If it is a render variable its easy... you just select that variable that you created and choose which literal values will trigger a render true condition. So if your on Page 1 then you will pick Page 1 as the true condition from the variable and the page will only be rendered when that condition is true.
If there is not a render variable then you will have to navigate to the variable pane after it is created and one at a time choose your output values and that will take you into condition mode (Changes color). When you have say "Page 1" selected in the condition explore you will navigate to Page 1 via the structure view and set visible = property to true and then navigate to all other pages and set them false(You could default all pages to false initially save this step if you want).... You will repeat this exercise for all possible output values. Won't take long but it is more tedious and that is why they created the "Render Variable"
The condition explorer allows you to select a output value and then navigate around in the report and change style visibility properties... those styles/visibility properties will only happen when the variable condition finds that output value true. It is a visual if/case statement basically.