November 20, 2009

gptip42day - Upgrading to SQL 2008


I try to stay away from the technical stuff in this blog and keep it oriented toward daily transaction processing and reporting but in my opinion this is worthy of mention, especially if you do a lot of SSRS reporting.

One of my frustrations with SSRS in 2005 and previous versions of SQL is adding a subtotal to a column of data.  One would think it would be a simple matter of inserting a formula in the column, much like entering a formula in an Excel spreadsheet, but it's not nearly that easy.  You have to enter a significant amount of code to enter a subtotal in a report.

However, SQL 2008 provides more flexibility in grouping, totals and subtotals using the 'Tablix' data region, which replaces the previous Table, Matrix and List elements in prior versions of SSRS.

Going into the details is beyond the scope of this blog but I encourage you to have a look at the Tablix feature in 2008 if you use SSRS.  It makes entering subtotals a piece of cake.

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