Organizing data in sections
A section is functionally equivalent to a group. When you create a section, you are also grouping data. Like groups, you can create multiple sections, calculate aggregate data for each section, start each section on a new page, and hide the details of each section.
One of the obvious differences between a section and a group is how the information is arranged. Compare the report designs in Figure 4-13 and Figure 4-14. The report in Figure 4-13 organizes data in two groups: sales office and product line. The report in Figure 4-14 organizes the same data in two sections: sales office and product line.
Figure 4-13  
Figure 4-14  
In Figure 4-13, the report design with groups displays the data from five fields in five columns. The sales office and product line values appear in the initial columns, below the column headers.
In Figure 4-14, the report design with sections, the sales office and product line values appear above the column headers.
As you can see when you compare the examples, organizing data in sections reduces the overall width of the table. If your report design displays many columns, and space is tight, this difference can be reason enough to create sections instead of groups.
Aside from the differences in the way information is arranged, organizing data in sections provides the following benefits over organizing data in groups:
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You can use both groups and sections in a single report design. Figure 4-15 shows a report design that contains the same data as the previous examples, except the sales office column is a section, and the product line column is a group.
Figure 4-15  

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