Free SQL Help for Devs, DBAs, and the Curious

In today's fast-paced and data-driven world, the ability to quickly and efficiently analyze data is essential. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), part of the SQL Server 2019 suite, is a powerful tool for creating, managing, and delivering reports. One of its most useful features is interactive sorting, which allows users to sort data in a report by clicking on a column header. This post will focus on how to implement SSRS interactive sorting with groups, and will include examples using SQL Server 2019, MySQL 8.0, DB2 11.5, Azure SQL and Azure Synapse.

Let's start with SQL Server 2019. To implement interactive sorting in SSRS, you first need to make sure you have a table with headers. Once your table is set up, you can right-click on the column header you want to sort by, and select "Text Box Properties". In the Text Box Properties dialog box, go to the "Interactive Sorting" tab and check the "Enable interactive sorting on this text box" checkbox. Then, specify the field to sort by in the "Sort by" box. For grouped data, you can also specify the group to apply the sorting within.

In MySQL 8.0, you can achieve similar functionality using ORDER BY clause in your SQL query. Here is an example:

SELECT * FROM Employees
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;

This query will sort the data first by "LastName", and then within each last name, it will sort by "FirstName". This is similar to creating a group in SSRS and sorting within that group.

DB2 11.5 also allows you to sort data using the ORDER BY clause. However, DB2 also supports the FETCH FIRST clause, which can be useful for limiting the amount of data returned. Here is an example:

SELECT * FROM Employees
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName
FETCH FIRST 10 ROWS ONLY;

This query will sort the data and then return only the first 10 rows. This can be very useful when working with large amounts of data.

Azure SQL and Azure Synapse also support interactive sorting with SSRS. The process is similar to SQL Server 2019: create a table with headers, enable interactive sorting on the column header, and specify the field (and group, if applicable) to sort by. These cloud-based solutions offer the additional advantage of being able to handle and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently, making them an excellent choice for businesses with big data needs.

In conclusion, interactive sorting in SSRS is a powerful feature that can greatly enhance your data analysis capabilities. Whether you're using SQL Server 2019, MySQL 8.0, DB2 11.5, Azure SQL or Azure Synapse, implementing interactive sorting with groups can help you get the most out of your data. Happy sorting!