Trouble Converting Excel Report into Reporting Services

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Trouble Converting Excel Report into Reporting Services

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swhedges47

Posted Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5:14 PM

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I've been given the task of converting a set of about 25 manually generated Excel reports into RS (2008R2).

A number of them have a (seemingly simple) pivot table layout that I'm finding especially frustrating to duplicate.

Here's an example where data is grouped by Division and then Dealer Name and the Dealer Name is positioned underneath the Division (which is essentially a placeholder with no data returned).

I can easily replicate the gist of the report by adding a row grouping that appears horizontally to the right of the Division, but I can't replicate the above format, with Dealer Name appearing underneath the Division but still grouped within it. The closest I have come is getting Dealer Name under Division, but all the Divisions appear on top first, with all the Dealers listed underneath and not within.

I'm pretty new to Reporting Services, so I'm wondering if there's something simple I'm missing here or whether this is just a case of non-translatable formatting between Excel and RS.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Stuart

Post #1424817

happycat59

Posted Wednesday, February 27, 2013 8:01 PM

SSCrazy

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Have a look at the properties of the text box that contains the dealer name - there should be a property called "Indent" (not sure which versions of SSRS this is in but it is availabl in 2008r2). Try a value of "5pt" for the property "HangingIndent".

If "Indent" is not available in the version you are using, try inserting a column 2 the right of Division. For the line that Division is on, merge the existing cell and the one to the right. On the line where the dealer name is shown, move the value to the new column. Finally, make the original column narrower (until you get the indent effect from the original spreadsheet). Hope that makes sense.

Post #1424849

swhedges47

Posted Thursday, February 28, 2013 2:41 PM

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Thanks for the reply.

I should have known there would be an indent property for the text, that will come in handy.

I'm not sure the snip of the Excel report was clear enough, what I'm trying to replicate is something like this:

Division1
Dlr1
Dlr2
Division2
Dlr3
Dlr4
Division3
Dlr5

And I can't seem to get past:

Division1
Division2
Division3
Dlr1
Dlr2
Dlr3
Dlr4

How do I get the output without having to resort to something like this (which I know I can do for this report, but will not work nearly as well for others I know I have to convert in the future:

Dlr1
Division1 Dlr2
Dlr3

Dlr4
Division2 Dlr5
Dlr6

I don't need the Division line to hold any detail data, if that makes a difference ...

[Edit] Argh. The formatting (indenting) I was trying doesn't seem to have worked. I hope it still makes sense.

Post #1425287

mister.magoo

Posted Thursday, February 28, 2013 7:02 PM

Ten Centuries

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Yes, you can do it.

You need to make sure that your Dealer Name group is a Child Row Group of the Division group, then it's just formatting (like the indent).

Edit: Obviously the image is not meant to reflect your columns/data, but to show the idea...

MM

Post Attachments

Grouping.PNG (31 views, 14.38 KB)

Post #1425323

swhedges47

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 12:13 PM

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Hmmm, I've tried that before and what I end up with is:

Is there some hidden step to adding Dealer as a Child Row Group that will move it underneath the Division Row Group that I'm overlooking, or am I just being dense about what I can do with the formatting?

The only way I can get the Dealer Row Group under the Division Row Group is to add it as a Row Group Adjacent Below, but that obviously just outputs all the Divisions first and then all of the Dealers underneath that.

Post #1425689

swhedges47

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 5:57 PM

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Ah, turns out that I was trying to create a report with "stepped" layout.

Here's a good overview of the process, if anyone ever needs to know:

http://sqldusty.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/creating-stepped-reports-with-ssrs-2008/

Thanks to all who helped!

Post #1425797

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