SSRS Comma-delimited list as Parameter value

Question

I have a report in SSRS. My parameter allows multiple values. My query has in the WHERE statement:

WHERE AllDiag IN (@Diag)

My user should be allowed to enter something like Z34.83,R30.0,0000.

These are 3 different codes to search for, so technically it is looking for:

WHERE AllDiag IN ('Z34.83','R30.0','0000')

I've tried all kinds of things like making the parameter properties in the query properties an expression using =join(Parameters!Diag.Value,"','"), and even entering the list of codes with the quotes already, but nothing seems to allow this to work.

I even tried some split function to see if it searched for each separately but I'm not sure I even use it right since there seems there might be some function that should run before.

I'm out of ideas. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

There are a lot of answers here which don't really point to the solution.

Problem: the @Parameter value is passed to SQL as a comma delimited NVARCHAR value, NOT a list of data values you can JOIN to or use WHERE clauses with. When passed to SQL Server via a procedure call the data type of your parameters is also lost.

Solution in SQL Server 2016+ is to use the build in "split_string" function which returns a list of values from a single delimited field.

DECLARE @Parameter nvarchar(max);
Select *
FROM [dbo].[MyTable] a
JOIN (Select [value] FROM string_split(@Parameter)) b
ON a.ID=b.Value

It may be necessary to CAST your value field depending on the data type you are expecting SSRS to pass through. For example DATE values may look like this:

DECLARE @Parameter nvarchar(max);
Select *
FROM [dbo].[MyTable] a
JOIN (Select CAST([value] as DATE) as [value] FROM string_split(@Parameter)) b
ON a.SomeDateValue=b.Value

In Sql Server 2014 or lower, you can use custom functions to separate delimited list into table rows. Many examples exists on MSDN and StackOverflow, here's very detailed blog post detailing the pros and cons of many methods.

Either method would work with Command Text and Stored Procedure data sets.

Answer 2

I second the answer from Canadean_AS that you should setup a multi-select parameter.

However, if for some reason you have a hard requirement to accept a single comma delimited string into @Diag, you can try the following in your query:

WHERE CHARINDEX(','+AllDiag+',' , ','+@Diag+',') > 0

Be aware that you may encounter performance issues if your where clause is filtering a large dataset with this function.

A more efficient option is to parse @Diag into a table of its own and join that table to the dataset in the FROM clause.

Answer 3

I thought I would share this with you all in case you may have had issues (like I did) with passing multiple values in a single parameter from your web page to a SSRS report.

NOTE: This is different from passing multiple parameters, each with its own value into a report. The later, there are plenty of examples on the web.

This is very usefull when you need to basically pass into your report's SQL command a list of values for your report's SQL command to use using a "special" function, and where you do not know the number of times the values may be required, as the user can choose anything from one value to 'n' values (but we will hit a limit, as I'll explain later). It's also useful for generating Excel row-by-row extracts from your website - say for Pivot table handling or charting later on.

Unfortunately using IN() on its own tricks a lot of people and they cannot figure out why it does not work. That's because if you define your report in SSRS to expect a parameter straight into the IN() function, the system literally places the value as a parameter in the function and tries to compare what is essentialy a parameter "data type" with your column's data type and you will get errors.

If your report has SQL similar to this ...

SELECT t.Col1, t.Col2, etc
  FROM myTable t
WHERE t.myColumn IN (@myListOfValues)

where @myListOfValues is something like "'value1','value2','value3',..." it "may" work but I found passing such a string from ASP.net into SSRS did not work and there are technical issues with string handling from the ASP.net side plus a limit depending your system and browser.

To get around possible issues, create a function in your SQL Server database to receive a string of values delimited by a comma and allow the function to turn your list into a table. That way the table can easily be linked using SQL and passed as a sort of "parameter feeder" into your report's SQL or dataset.

So without babbling on too much lets start with code and an example:

Firstly lets create a special utility function that converts a list of values into a table, and by the way this function can be used within your projects to do exactly that - split strings delimited by something into a table for anything else.

Open SQL Server and create a new function using your normal right-click NEW function command. Something like this ...

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnMakeTableFromList](@List VARCHAR(MAX),@Delimiter VARCHAR(255))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
  RETURN (SELECT Item = CONVERT(VARCHAR, Item)
          FROM (SELECT Item = x.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'varchar(max)')   FROM (SELECT [XML] = CONVERT(XML, '<i>' + REPLACE(@List, @Delimiter,'</i><i>')+ '</i>').query('.')) AS a
          CROSS APPLY [XML].nodes('i') AS x(i)) AS y
  WHERE  Item IS NOT NULL);

NOTE: the delimiter does not have to be a single character! Again useful for delimiting using keywords, etc.

Note the XML logic and conversion in the function? That is because ASP.Net is going to literally pass some HTML into SQL Server and we're going to use it to strip off the data we need into a table.

Run the function with some values to test:

SELECT * FROM dbo.fnMakeTableFromList ('a,b,c,d', ',');

You should see 4 rows of data returned ...

a

b

c

d

That is the results in a table.

Now use this function in your SQL Reporting Services report: Here is my report as an example:

SELECT DISTINCT s.StudentID
FROM tblStudents s
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.fnMakeTableFromList(@StudentList,',') AS list ON list.Item = s.StudentID
WHERE (@StudentList IS NULL
    OR @StudentList='')
  AND (l.Item IS NULL
    OR l.Item = s.StudentID)

Note my example also caters for reporting every student ID if there was no value passed at all. So report every student found in tblStudents or report those based on the list of student IDs given, delimited by a comma. When you run this directly in SSRS, you'll be asked for a parameter @StudentList. In there type what ever values you need separated by a comma, and you should only get those student IDs. If not, make sure the report works "stand alone" first before going over to the ASP side.

Once you are happy your report works, and the function in SQL Server works, then we are ready to code the ASP.net side of things:

In your ASPX code behind page (C#) we need to control what the list is and how to pass it over to SSRS. Because we are dealing with a LIST<> here, I am only going to illustrate the way to do using a LIST<> to mimic an array. As you know C# does not have array terminology like you have with VB.

So in your ASP.net page paste this code in your PageLoad event ...

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    //get parameters from the URL list
    string strStudentList = Request.QueryString["StudentList"];
    //create a List of parameters and pass it over to the report
    List<ReportParameter> paramList = new List<ReportParameter>();
    paramList.Add(new ReportParameter("StudentList", strStudentList));
    //run the report
    ReportViewer1.ServerReport.SetParameters(paramList);
}

Of course some objects in here have to be defined in your ASPx page.

For example I use a master page and as you can see, I did all of this to create a mailing list for printing on special sticky label paper.

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/rptsStudentAdministration/StudentAdminReports.master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="rptStudentLabels.aspx.cs" Inherits="rptsStudentAdministration_rptStudentLabels" Title="Student Mailing Labels" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" Runat="Server">
    <rsweb:reportviewer id="ReportViewer1" runat="server" font-names="Verdana" font-size="8pt"
        height="800px" processingmode="Remote" width="900px">
<ServerReport ReportServerUrl="<%$ AppSettings:ReportServerURL %>" ReportPath="/rptsStudentAdministration/rptStudentLabels"></ServerReport>
</rsweb:reportviewer>
</asp:Content>

Make sure you are using these as well in your .cs file:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms;

And that's it folks!

CONCLUSION:

If you need to generate a report in SQL Server Reporting services that relies on users selecting none, one or many values to control the logic in the report, then think of passing them all as a single parameter and using a function to turn your values into a table for ease of SQL management. Once you have the SQL working, you should be able to generate the report easily in design mode and using the above ASPx logic, be able to pass all the values delimited by a comma into into your report. An added bonus is to HIDE the parameter in SSRS and that way the user does not have to see what values they chose, and you control the entire report being generated programmatically.

Answer 4

I'm assuming your dataset uses the WHERE clause as you stated

WHERE AllDiag IN (@Diag)

I'm also assuming that you cannot easily produce a list of available parameter values to choose from.

So to create a parameter that allows the user to manually enter a list of values simply set 'Allow multiple values' on @Diag parameter. The user then simply types each value and presses enter after each one. Note there is no need for comma's just type them one by one pressing enter after each.

When SSRS sees a multi-value parameter being passed to a SQL statement using an IN clause, it converts this to dynamic SQL automatically including adding the comma's. If you trace the report using the SQL Profiler, you can see the SQL that is generated.