Applying a Filter to a Data Band in Report Designer

Applying a Filter to a Data Band in Report Designer

The articles in this section of the Knowledge Base involve working with Lists for display in your reports. To learn more about Lists and how to access the Report Designer, see Creating Lists in Report Designer. This article provides information for applying a Filter to a Data band.

Sometimes you may find it necessary to print rows of the Data source that correspond to a definite condition. A Filter is used to select the rows that meet this Condition. To set a Filter, open the Data band editor by double-clicking the Data band. It is also possible to call the Data band editor using the Filter property of the Data band (Figure 01). 


Fig. 01 – Filters Property 

A filter works by establishing a condition to be evaluated as either true or false. Each data row in the Data Source will be processed through the filter individually. If the data row evaluates as true, it will be rendered in the Report. If it evaluates as false, it will be ignored and not be printed. 


Fig. 02 – Data Editor – Filter Tab 

  1. The Filters tab.
  2. Add a new Filter. There can be multiple filters per Data band.
  3. Delete the selected filter.
  4. Move the selected filter up or down.
  5. Determines the logical operation type. There are two options for the logical operator—a logical And and a logical Or. When set to And, the data row will output if all filters are true. When set to Or, the data row outputs if at least one of the filters is true.  
  6. This flag is used to disable/enable filters of the Data band.
  7. Used to determine the filter engine. For our purposes, Report Engine is adequate. Do not switch to SQL Query unless you have a working knowledge of the SQL language.
  8. An individual filter set to Expression.
  9. An individual filter set to Value.

There are two ways to set a Filter’s Condition:

  1. Value – The Condition is designed using the wizard.
  2. Expression – The Condition is set as an expression. 

    3. Fig. 03 – Value or Expression 

Setting a Condition with the Value Wizard 


Fig. 04 – Condition Wizard 

  1. The way of selecting a condition.
  2. The type of data that the Condition uses. The five possible data types are Expression, Boolean, DateTime, Numeric, and String. The list of available operations will change depending on the data type.
  3. The column name from the Data Source. This value is the first value of the Condition.
  4. This parameter is the operation type. See Figure 05 for a full list of operation types. 

    5. Fig. 05 – Operation Types 

  5. This parameter is the value in which the data row is compared. Some operations require that two values are specified. The Between operation is one such example. 

    6. Fig. 06 – Between Operation 

The Table below features the different Operation types and their descriptions as applied to each data type. 

Name of Operation
String
Numeric 
Data
Logic
Expression
Description
Equal to
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
When the first value is equal to the second value, the Condition is true.
Not Equal to
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
When the first value is  NOT equal to the second value, the Condition is true.
Between

✔
✔

✔
When the first value is in the range, the Condition is true. 
Not Between

✔
✔

✔
When the first value is  NOT in the range, the Condition is true.
Greater than

✔
✔

✔
When the first value evaluates as greater than the second value, the Condition is true. 
Greater than or Equal to

✔
✔

✔
When the first value evaluates greater than or equal to the second value, the Condition is true.
Less than

✔
✔

✔
When the first value is less than the second value, the Condition is true.
Less than or Equal to

✔
✔

✔
When the first value is less than or equal to the second value, the Condition is true. 
Containing
✔




When the first value contains the second value, the Condition is true.
Not Containing
✔




When the first value does NOT contain the second value, the Condition is true.
Beginning with
✔




When the first value begins with the second value, the Condition is true.
Ending with
✔




When the first value ends with the second value, the Condition is true. 

Setting a Condition using an Expression

The Expression type of Condition is set as a text expression that returns a Boolean value (true or false).


Fig. 07 – Expression Condition

An example of an expression to compare a value to row data is:

Products.Width <= 30

With the Expression above, only Products with a width of 30 or below are displayed in the Report.


Fig. 08 – Report with a Conditional Expression Applied

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