SSRS Expressions for Conditional Formatting
By Tom Nonmacher
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a comprehensive tool that allows developers to create, deploy, and manage reports for business data. An essential part of creating meaningful and visually appealing reports is the use of expressions for conditional formatting. This post will discuss how to apply conditional formatting in SSRS using SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017.
In SSRS, expressions are used to provide dynamic behavior to the report. For instance, you might use an expression to change the color of a field based on its value. This is where conditional formatting comes in. Conditional formatting allows you to define the formatting properties such as color, font size, and border style based on specific conditions.
Let's consider a simple example where we want to highlight the rows of a report where the sales amount is greater than 1000. In SSRS, we can use the following expression:
=IIf(Fields!SalesAmount.Value > 1000, "Red", "Black")
In this expression, IIf is a function that checks the condition specified in the first argument. If the condition is true, it returns the second argument. If it's false, it returns the third argument. This will change the color of the text to red if the sales amount is greater than 1000, otherwise, the text color will be black.
In SQL Server 2017, you can use the SWITCH function for more complex conditional formatting. The SWITCH function is similar to the CASE statement in SQL. It checks a list of conditions and returns the first true result.
=SWITCH(
Fields!SalesAmount.Value > 1000, "Red",
Fields!SalesAmount.Value > 500, "Orange",
True, "Black"
)
In this example, the SWITCH function checks the sales amount. If it's greater than 1000, it returns red. If it's greater than 500 but less than 1000, it returns orange. For all other values, it returns black.
While SSRS is a tool specific to Microsoft SQL Server, similar conditional formatting can be achieved in other databases like MySQL 5.7 and DB2 11.1 using their respective functions. In Azure SQL, which is Microsoft's cloud-based SQL service, SSRS's functionality can be leveraged to create and deploy reports with dynamic, condition-based formatting. This allows for the creation of meaningful, visually appealing reports across different database platforms.
In conclusion, conditional formatting in SSRS is a powerful tool that can significantly enhance the readability and understanding of your reports. Whether you are using SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, Azure SQL, MySQL 5.7, or DB2 11.1, understanding how to use condition-based expressions for formatting can help you create effective and insightful reports.