Controlling the Tablix Data Region Display on a Report Page (Reporting Services)
After you add a Tablix data region to a report, you can continue to develop your design as you work between the Design view and Preview in Report Designer. This topic describes properties for a Tablix data region that you can modify to change the way a Tablix data region appears when you view it in a report.
Controlling the Appearance of Data
The following features help control the appearance of a Tablix data region:
Formatting data. To format data in a table, matrix, or list, set the format properties of the text box in the cell. You can set properties for multiple cells at the same time. To format data in a chart, set formatting properties on the series. For more information, see Formatting Reports and Report Items and Formatting a Chart.
You can also format data by writing expressions. For more information, see Adding Conditional Formatting (Reporting Services), Using Expressions (Reporting Services), and Expression Examples (Reporting Services).
Controlling sort order. To control the sort order, you must define sort expressions on the data region. To control sort order for rows and columns that are associated with a group, you must define sort expressions on the group, including the details groups. You can also add interactive sort buttons to enable the user to sort a Tablix data region or its groups. For more information, see Working with Group Features (Reporting Services) and How to: Sort Data in a Data Region (Reporting Services).
Displaying a message when there is no data. When no data exists for a report dataset at run time, you can write your own message to display in place of the data region. For more information, see How to: Set a No Data Message for a Data Region.
Conditionally hiding data. To conditionally control whether to show or hide a data region or parts of a data region, you can set the Hidden property to True or to an expression. Expressions can include references to report parameters. You can also specify a toggle item, so that user can decide to display detail data. For more information, see Hiding Report Items Conditionally.
Merging cells. Multiple contiguous cells within a table can be combined into a single cell. This is known as a column span or a cell merge. Cells can only be combined horizontally or vertically. When you merge cells, only the data in the first cell is preserved. Data in other cells is removed. Merged cells can be split into their original columns. For more information, see How to: Merge Cells in a Data Region (Reporting Services).
Controlling Tablix Data Region Position and Expansion on a Page
The following features help control the way a Tablix data region displays in a rendered report:
Controlling the position of a Tablix data region in relation to other report items. A Tablix data region can be positioned above, next to, or below other report items on the report design surface. At run time, Reporting Services expands the Tablix data region as needed for the data retrieved for the linked dataset, moving peer report items aside as needed. To anchor a Tablix next to another report item, you must make the report items peers and adjust their relative positions. For more information, see Understanding Rendering Behaviors.
Changing the Expansion Direction. To control whether a Tablix data region expands across the page from left-to-right (LTR) or from right-to-left (RTL), use the Direction property, which can be accessed through the Properties window. For more information, see Rendering Data Regions.
Controlling How a Tablix Data Region Renders
The following features help control how cells in row and column group areas appear in a rendered report. For more information about row and column groups areas, see Understanding Tablix Data Region Areas. For more information about how exporting a report to different formats affects the way a Tablix data region renders on a page, see Understanding Rendering Behaviors.
Controlling paging. To control the amount of data that displays on each report page, you can set page breaks on data regions. You can also set page breaks on groups. Page breaks can affect the on-demand rendering performance by reducing the amount of data that needs to be processed on each page. For more information, see Understanding Pagination in Reporting Services and How to: Add a Page Break (Reporting Services).
Displaying data on either side of row headers. You are not limited to displaying row headers on the side of a Tablix data region. You can move the row headers between columns, so that columns of data appear before the row headers. To do this, modify the GroupsBeforeRowHeaders property for the matrix. You can access this property through the Properties window. The value for this property is an integer; for example, a value of 2 will display two groups instances of data region column data before displaying the column containing the row headers.
Controlling Row and Column Headings. You can control how row and column headings repeat or freeze when you view a report. For more information, see Controlling Row and Column Headings. For step-by-step instructions, see the following topics:
Repeating row and column headers on multiple pages.You can display row and column headers on each page that a Tablix data region spans. For more information, see How to: Display Row and Column Headers on Multiple Pages (Reporting Services).
Keeping row and column headers in view when scrolling. You can control whether to keep the row and column headers in view when you scroll a report using a browser. For more information, see How to: Keep Headers Visible When Scrolling Through a Report (Reporting Services).
See Also
Concepts
Linking Multiple Data Regions to the Same Dataset
Calculating Totals and Other Aggregates (Reporting Services)
Grouping Data in a Data Region