Providing control to the user to determine which records should be returned. As with most reports, reports might contain thousands of records, many of which the user doesn’t desire to view. To allow the user to decide upon a smaller subset of records, reports should be equipped with parameters commonly used with stored procedures. To…

Providing group totals within nested groups. Often a need arises with reports to group data. Grouping data provides the user with the ability to see records grouped based on shared values for certain fields, “Product Name” for example. As helpful as grouping may be, most people will need metrics to go along with those grouped…

Integrating multi-level groups within reports. Often within reports, a natural hierarchy reveals itself that if grouped properly, provides the user an efficient means for viewing large numbers of records while avoiding repeating values. To illustrate this feature, I’ll begin with an average report illustrating a company’s store demographics. As you can see, the first two…

Using SQL Server Reporting Services to generate form letters to users. As businesses grow, so does their customer base and the need to communicate with them. SSRS provides an easy way to automate the communication process by generated form letters utilizing user-based data from a centralized data source. In this example, I’ll begin with a…

Using a list report to display separate discrete record sets. I’ll begin by creating new “rptEmployees” report to display employee data. Next, I’ll drag a list object unto the design surface. When prompted with the “Dataset Properties,” I’ll name my new dataset, and to use an “embedded” dataset, then I’ll click “New” to create a new…

Integrating logical grouping into rows. In reports displaying data with rows duplicating values in the field that identifies each row to the user, it’s helpful to group those rows together under a common header. In this example, I’ll begin where my Report Header article left off to illustrate how to group like rows together. Notice…

Applying a sum within a group’s records. As I illustrated in my Grouping article, grouping records that share an identical value for a column is a very helpful method to avoid repeating data and provide the user with a more intuitive manner to view records similar to each other. In this example, I will show…

Using the graphic query designer to quickly construct sql to populate the dataset. The Graphic Query Designer provides one of the most efficient methods for creating sql necessary to populate a report’s dataset and avoids and syntax errors by writing the sql for the user. I’ll begin this example by creating a new dataset for…

Applying consistency and helpful information to reports. When deploying multiple reports for user consumption, it’s helpful to users if they have helpful information when traversing the data and that data remains in a consistent location in every report. To illustrate how to accomplish this goal, I’ll begin where the Calculation – Field Formatting article ended…

Constructing derived values through combining strings. Combining string values is one of the most common requirements when building reports. In this example, I will illustrate how to concatenate string values together to build a simple Contact field. I’ll begin with a simple dataset containing Supplier data. As you can see, the data contains four fields,…