Bind Report Controls to Data

This article describes how report controls can be bound to data fields and how calculated fields can be used in your report

Control Bindings

A report control can be bound to a data field in two ways.
 

• Create a Data-Aware Element
  
  The Report Designer allows you to add a new bound report control using the Field List.
  
  To create a data-aware element, switch to the Field List panel, click the desired field item, and then drag and drop it onto the report band. After this, a control that is bound to the selected data field will appear.
  
  
  
  
  
• Bind an Element to Data
  
  To bind an existing report element to a data member, select this element, switch to the Properties Panel, and in the Actions category, specify the Data Bindings property. Or in the Properties Panel, expand the Data category, then expand the Data Bindings section, and choose the property you want to bind.
  
  
  
  
  To unbind a control's property, switch to the Properties Panel, and set the Data Bindings property to None.
  
  
  
  
  

  Calculated Fields

  
  This document describes how calculated fields can be used in your report. 
  
  1. Create a calculated field. To do this, switch to the Field List panel, click a data table and the click Add calculated field button.
  
  
  
  2. To specify calculated field properties, click the Edit button (the 'pencil' icon ) for this calculated field. Among its options, make sure to change the Field Type property to an appropriate value, we recommend double or decimal.
  
  
  
  3. The value of a calculated field is obtained by evaluating its expression, which is specified by its Expression property. To create an expression for the calculated field, click the ellipsis button for the Expression property. Then, construct the required expression in the invoked Expression Editor.
  

  To add a data field or report parameter to this expression, double-click the required name in the Fields list. A data field is inserted into the expression's text using its name in [square brackets], and parameters are inserted using the "Parameters." prefix before their names.
  To add operators between field names, use the toolbar or Operators list. To perform different string, date-time, logical, and math operations over data, use standard functions from the Functions list.

  
  
  
  
  4. Now, you can use the calculated field as a typical data field, e.g., drop it from the Field List to create a Label control bound to this field, or even group, sort and filter your report against it.

  For example, create the following report.

  
  
  
  5. The report with a calculated field is now ready.