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Reporting Services tips

Reporting Services tips


Set a table's visibility to false when it has no rows
So to set the (table) Visibilty / Hidden property to hide when there are no rows, it's simply
=Iif (CountRows() > 0, false, true)

Get record count or row count of rows in reporting service table object?
Use this expression where ever you like
=RowNumber("table1")

if you add above expression into a new column in table 1 you'll see the exact number of the your filtered rows , and you can use the Last one as the count

Date format in SSRS


You can use the Format() function to achieve this. If you select the field you want to format and then go to Properties->Expressions you could do something like this:
=Format(Fields!DateCreated.Value,"yyyy/MM/dd")

Adding an Else to your Switch


September 14, 2009 in Reporting Services | 6 comments In this short article I will be talking about two functions in the SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) function stack. Those functions are IIF() and Switch(). And Ill be showing you how easy it is to add an Else part to the Switch function. Two commonly-used functions in Reporting Services are the IIF() and the Switch(). These are two functions of the Program Flow type, or Decision Functions as they are called on this MSDN page. In case youre wondering why its so difficult to find a function reference for the built-in functions of SSRS, its because these are actually Visual Basic functions and Microsoft refers to those for any detailed explanation. Click this link for the IIF() function in the Visual Basic Language Reference, and this one for the Switch(). Anyone whos done some programming most likely already knows the if <expression> then <some_code> else <other_code> statement. If <expression> evaluates to true then <some_code> gets executed, else <other_code> gets executed. The IIF() works in the same way. According to its description it Returns one of two objects, depending on the evaluation of an expression. This is its definition:
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Reporting Services tips Public Function IIf( _ ByVal Expression As Boolean, _ ByVal TruePart As Object, _ ByVal FalsePart As Object _ ) As Object

Heres a simple example:


=IIf(Fields!YearlyIncome.Value >= 60000,"High","Low")

Using this expression, the "High" string is returned when the value of the YearlyIncome field is equal to or above 600, while the string "Low" is returned when the value is below 600. Now have a look at the following example. It has been nicely structured with indentation and line breaks to make reading easier.
=IIF ( Sum(Fields!LineTotal.Value) >= 100, "Violet", IIF() ( Sum(Fields!LineTotal.Value) < 25, "Transparent", "Cornsilk" ) )

As you see, it shows a nested IIF inside another one. Imagine that there were several more nestings and that line breaks were not used by the coder. Would be a nightmare to read, right? Thats why the Switch() was invented. The description for the Switch function reads: Evaluates a list of expressions and returns an Object value corresponding to the first expression in the list that is True. And this is the function definition:
Public Function Switch( _ ByVal ParamArray VarExpr() As Object _ ) As Object

In Reporting Services, the VarExpr parameter is simply an even list of expressions and/or object references separated by commas. Which comes down to something like this: Switch(<expr1>, val1, <expr2>, val2). Heres a simple example:
=Switch ( Fields!State.Value = "OR", "Oregon", Fields!State.Value = "WA", "Washington" )

Reporting Services tips

This expression says that if the value for the State field is "OR" then the Switch function will return "Oregon", and so on Now, to get to the point of this article, the Switch function does not contain an ELSE part like the IIF does. But I wouldnt be writing this if there wasnt a workaround, would I? If you read the Switchs description closely, it says that it will return the first expression in the list that is true. So each expression is evaluated in the order that they are passed to the function. To get ELSE-like behavior we would need an expression that evaluates to True but only when all other expressions are False. So, why not use True as expression? Its the simplest expression that I can think of and it does the works! Have a look at the following, its a rewrite of the last IIF example mentioned earlier.
=Switch ( Sum(Fields!LineTotal.Value) >= 100, "Violet", Sum(Fields!LineTotal.Value) < 25, "Transparent", True, "Cornsilk" )

So, which one do you think is the most readable? The IIF, or the Switch? These are only simple examples that Ive been using, imagine situations with ten or more possibilities. Well, I think youve got my point by now. Quick tip for users of Report Builder 2.0: to be able to format your expression with line breaks and tabs, you need to use CTRL + ENTER or CTRL + TAB in the Expression Builder. Just hitting ENTER will close the popup window. Its quite annoying if youre used to the BIDS interface, but it works

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