SSRS Custom Code vs Expression Fields
By Tom Nonmacher
The versatility of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is well-established. It continues to be a powerful tool for business intelligence, providing comprehensive reporting functionalities for business data. The flexibility of SSRS is further enhanced by the ability to include custom code and expression fields. This post will delve into the differences between SSRS custom code and expression fields, and how to leverage these features in SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL.
Custom code in SSRS allows you to go beyond the limitations of the built-in functions. It provides a way to write your own, reusable functions, and embed them in the report. This enhances the report's flexibility and facilitates more complex calculations. You can write custom code in either Visual Basic or C# in a standalone .NET assembly. On the other hand, expression fields are primarily used to manipulate field values in the report data, handle user interface actions, and manage report and group variables. They are written using the built-in expression language which is similar to Visual Basic.
-- Example of SSRS custom code in Visual Basic
Public Function ConvertCurrencyToUSD(value As Decimal, rate As Decimal) As Decimal
Return value * rate
End Function
The Microsoft Fabric computing platform, combined with Azure SQL, can greatly simplify the process of managing and scaling your SSRS solutions. With Microsoft Fabric, you can easily distribute your SSRS reports across multiple nodes for improved performance and availability. Furthermore, Azure SQL provides built-in intelligence that learns your unique database patterns and adapts to maximize performance, reliability, and data protection.
Delta Lake, an open-source storage layer that brings ACID transactions to Apache Spark and big data workloads, can be integrated with SSRS as well. This allows you to maintain a reliable and high-performance storage layer for your SSRS reports, even when dealing with massive datasets. With Delta Lake, you can ensure that your reports are always working with the most accurate, up-to-date data.
-- Example of a SELECT statement on a Delta Lake table
SELECT * FROM delta.`/path/to/delta/lake/table`
Another exciting technology that can be used in conjunction with SSRS is OpenAI + SQL. OpenAI + SQL, powered by GPT-3, is a powerful tool for generating human-like text. For example, you can use it to automatically generate descriptions or summaries for your SSRS reports, saving you a lot of time and effort. You can also use it to generate SQL queries based on natural language input, making your reports more accessible to non-technical users.
Finally, Databricks, a unified data analytics platform, can be used together with SSRS to provide advanced analytics capabilities. You can use Databricks to preprocess and transform your data before feeding it into SSRS, or to run complex analytics queries on your SSRS data. By combining SSRS with Databricks, you can take your business intelligence to the next level.
In conclusion, SSRS custom code and expression fields provide powerful capabilities that can enhance your reports. By leveraging these features in conjunction with technologies like SQL Server 2022, Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric, Delta Lake, OpenAI + SQL, and Databricks, you can create highly flexible, scalable, and intelligent reporting solutions.