well guys thnx for ur concern but either i cud nt explain the problem or u guys thinking in wrong direction. first of all its a recursive tree dataset with unlimited nodes or undefined nodes at design time ofcourse. so i got to create a single group with catid as expression and ParentCat as its parent group expression so that this dataset can be presented in tree view mode with the help of padding on basis of Level() function

As far as numbering is concerned i ve deviced a way finally. though i ve not tested it yet i ll check it out tomorrow in my office. but psudo code is that i ve to use a function in report coding area which ll do all the working by reviewing the previous() built in function. after completing the task successfully by the grace of ALLAH i ll post the code.

but simply the idea is to device a function in report code area which ll take previous numbering value as parameter do the work and return the value for the current row. THATS ALL

thnx to all

regards

Hammad