| Property | New Value |
| FontSize | 16pt |
| FontWeight | Bold |
| TextAlign | Center |
Click the Preview tab. The report should appear as shown here.
Figure 18
Click Save All in the toolbar.
Task Notes When we added the grouping, we specified an
expression in Step 4. This group expression determines when a new
group header is placed in the report. In the Transport List report, we
used the Description field from the TransportType table in the group
expression. Because our first sort in the dataset was on the
TransportType.Description column, all the Photon III transports came
first in the dataset, followed by the StarLifter transports, and,
finally, the Warp Hauler transports. Each time the value of the group
expression changes, a new group header is added to the report.
Be sure you do not confuse the grouping in the report with the GROUP
BY clause we used in SQL SELECT statements. The SQL GROUP BY clause
takes a number of records and combines them into a single record in
the result set. The grouping in the report takes a number of records
in the dataset and surrounds them with a group header and/or group
footer when they are output in the report.
In Steps 9–15, we combined all the fields that need to be in the group
header into one expression. This was done so we could create a
multiline group header, and also to concatenate or combine the labels
(Transport Type:, Cargo Capacity:, and Range:) and the contents of the
three fields (Description, CargoCapacity, and Range) into one string.
The three columns of the group header were merged together to create
room for the resulting expression. The Visual Basic concatenation
operator (&) is used to combine the values into one long string. The
Visual Basic constant vbCrLf is used to put a carriage return and
linefeed in the middle of the string. This causes everything following
the carriage return and linefeed to be placed on the next line down,
giving us a two-line group header.
Remember, table cells are always occupied by a report item. If no
other report item has been placed in a cell, the cell is occupied by a
text box. When multiple cells are merged, the report item in the
leftmost cell expands to fill the merged table cell. The report items
in the other cells involved in the merge are automatically deleted.
We created a border on the bottom of the text box in the merged cells
to underline our group heading. This is easier and more efficient than
adding a Line report item to the report to get the same result. This
is especially true when you are trying to underline
something in the middle of a table, such as our group header.
When you typed the text in Step 20, it looked like you were entering
the text directly into the text box. What you were doing is changing
the Value property of the text box. You can change the Value property
of a text box by typing directly into the text box in the report
layout area or by using the Properties window.
In addition, the Edit Expression dialog box can be used to change the
Value property of a text box, as well as many other report item
properties. In Step 8, we used the Context menu to bring up the Edit
Expression dialog box. The Edit Expression dialog box can also be
accessed through a drop-down list in the Properties window, as this
illustration shows. In addition to the Value property of the text box,
the Edit Expression dialog box can be used to change a number of
properties of various report items. We discuss this in more detail in
Chapter 7.
Figure 19
You probably noticed a red, jagged line that appears occasionally
below the expression as you typed it in the Edit Expression dialog
box. If you have ever used Microsoft Word, then you know this means
something is wrong with the text you have typed. In Word, this red
line indicates a spelling error. In the Edit Expression dialog box,
this means a problem exists with the syntax of your expression.
Hovering
over the red line provides you with a brief description of the problem.
Data Regions
The table item is one of four special report items designed
specifically for working with datasets. These special report items are
called data regions. The other data regions are the matrix, the
list, and the chart.
Data regions are able to work with multiple records from a dataset.
The data region reads a record from the dataset, creates a portion of
the report using the data found in that record, and then moves on to
the next record. It does this until all the records from the dataset
have been processed.
In the report you just completed, you saw how the table data region
creates a detail row for each record in the dataset. The matrix data
region creates both rows and columns based on the contents of the
dataset. You see this demonstrated in our next report. The list data
region is not limited to rows and columns. It creates a whole section,
perhaps a whole page, for each record in the dataset. We create a
report using a list data region later in this chapter. The chart data
region creates elements on a graph for each record in a dataset. We
create a report using a chart data region in Chapter 6.
Each data region item has a property called DataSetName. This property
contains the name of the dataset used by the data region. In the
Transport List report you just created, the DataSetName property of
the table has the value TransportList (see the following
illustration). Visual Basic automatically set this property for you
when you placed the first field, the SerialNumber field, in the table.
Because the SerialNumber field is from the TransportList dataset and
because the table's DataSetName property was empty, Visual Basic put
the value TransportList into the DataSetName property.
Figure 20
Click for the next excerpt in this series: Repair Count By Type Report
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The following excerpt, courtesy of McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, is from Chapter 5 of the book Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services 2005 written by Brian Larson. Click here to 
