Question

I am using SQL Server 2008 and I want to show 1 single field from a table in multiple columns in the report. Just like if I were to print labels. How can I achieve this?

Example:

Instead of printing:

Names Report

Andrea
Austin
Barbara
Bob
Bruno
Cathy
Chis
…

I want to print in columns (say 3 fixed columns):

Names Report

Andrea —- Bruno —- Darren
Austin —- Cathy —- Francis
Barbara —- Chis —- Gabriel
Bob —- David —- Gerald
……. —- ……. —- …….

Edit: If I run the report and click on “Print Layout” button, I can see multiple columns. Can I set this mode as default?

Answer 1

Use the ‘Report’ menu in Visual Studio and select ‘Report Properties’. You can set columns in the ‘Layout’ tab.

Try this msdn article about newsletter-style reports for more details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159107.aspx

This method does have a limitation though so in some cases it might not be applicable:

Only PDF and Image renderers support
newsletter-style reports.

EDIT:
So one approach is to use multiple tablix with a filter that checks RowNumber and accordingly displays particular records in each table.

The other way is called Newsletter-style report (link). This formatting is retained only when report is exported as PDF or Image. It can be previewed only when you select ‘Print Layout’ on the Preview tab in Visual Studio. Here is an example:

1. Create a new report with the foll. dataset: SELECT ID,NAME FROM TABLENAME
2. Add a new table to the report and select the ID and Name as columns
3. Click on the tablix and press F4 to edit the tablix properties. In the properties window, change the Size – set the width to 2in
4. Click on the report area outside the report page boundary and press F4 to edit the report properties. In the properties window, change the Column value to 3, and column spacing value to 0.1
5. On the report scroll to the right hand side, you will notice that there are 2 new columns (so totally 3 columns on the report – because you selected 3 in step 4 above). Now click on the margin at the start of the column 2 and pull it further to the left to bring it as close to the column 1. This is only to reduce the need for huge page size.
6. Right click on the report area outside the report page boundary and select Report Properties. Change the Page Size – Set the width to 10in
7. Preview the report. Now select the ‘Print Layout’ tab to see the result. This formatting is retained only when report is exported as PDF or Image.

As noted in points 5 and 6 – since the report body flows into multiple columns, you must ensure that the page size is at-least equal to -> ([Original report body size times the number of columns] + all the column spacing values). Otherwise it will look messy.