Question

This is a difficult question to articulate, but I’ll give it my best:

Basically my database has erroneous values and I want to write my SSRS to account for them rather than going in and cleaning up the DB.

For simplicity’s sake my records consist of 2 values: ownerid and case_type. Currently we have case_types that are lexicographically similar but conceptually identical. I want to create a report for records to account for these data inconsistencies. So…

I would ideally like to turn a simple call center report like this:

Owner | Email | Inbound Phone | Inbound Phone Call
bob   |  3    |     5         |     7
jon   |  1    |     2         |     3

Where for each owner responded to x number of emails, y number of ‘inbound phone’ and z number of ‘inbound phone calls’. (I didn’t create this data and am the one dealing with it now).

into:

Owner | Email | Inbound Phone Call
bob   |  3    |     12
jon   |  1    |     5

Essentially combining the count of ‘inbound phone’ and ‘inbound phone call’ records into a single column.

PS This data is coming from CRM 2011 and I need to use Fetch as the query. I have all the records I need, I just need to figure out how to parse the bad ones.

Answer 1

SSRS creates a new column whenever it thinks it is encountering a new group. The report you started with used a field for this. So SSRS thought every distinct value in the [Case_type] field was a new group, and needed a new column.

So change the group properties (Right click on gray area above the column and select Column Group -> Group Properties… Edit the Group Expression to the formula below)

The formula below should replace a the simple field. Before creating a new group, SSRS will run every [case_type] through this formula, and if it is “Inbound Phone” it will be replaced with “Inbound Phone Call.” SSRS will now see that this matches an existing group and will group these values in the same column.

=Switch(
  Fields!Case_Type.Value = "Inbound Phone", "Inbound Phone Call",
  1 = 1, Fields!Case_Type.Value)

Other replacements can be inserted into this to handle additional cases. If you need them combined by similarity, then things can get more complicated.