Hi,

I am putting together a report that includes sub reports.  In one of my sub reports I am pulling data isn't always there, so I set those fields to be visible only when the data is not null.  That works except it leaves a big hole in the report when viewed and printed. 

Is there some way to make the objects below this sub report move up to fill that void?  I think it would make the report look nicer and use less paper when printed.  In my FoxPro days I seem to recall that there was a way to do this in the FP report writer but I'm not finding anything obvious in SSRS 2005.

Thanks in advance,

Linn

Hi Ikubler,

Put the sub reports within a rectangle and set the rectangle visibility to true or false based on the count of the rows on the dataset.

This should work hopefully in getting rid of the empty space.

Hi Milan,

Guess I didn't explain the situation very well.  It is not that the entire sub report is blank, just a portion of it.  So if I understand your suggestion correctly I can't hide the entire thing. 

This sub report consists of a table with multiple detail rows and below that is another sub report.  It is one of the detail rows that can be blank but there will be other data.  If that makes sense.  I could post a picture I think if that is permitted in the forum.

I have thought of one way to skin this cat and that would be if I could tie the height of the multi-row table to the existence of the field.  And then subsequently tie the top property of the following sub report object to that field.   But I don't see any way to do that yet, the Height and Top properties don't seem to have Expression options.

Thanks,

Linn

Hi Linn,

According to your description, you have created a subreport in SSRS 2005, fields within the tablix has been specified to display when the data is not null. But the hidden cells display as blank space, you want to fill those blank space automatically using other report items, right?

In your scenario, though  the cells within the details rows of Tablix are hidden when the corresponding value is null, but they also occupy the actual space behind the screen. Its just hidden instead of nonexistent. So its not supported to suppress those blank cells. Also it doesnt make sense to control other report items to display in those blank space section.

If I misunderstand your requirement, please share some screenshots about report design and expected results for our analysis.
  
If you have any question, please feel free to ask.

Best regards,
Qiuyun Yu

Hi Qiuyun,

I came to the same conclusion last night, can't find a way to replace hidden cells or cover them at least.

But I disagree, I believe that at times it makes complete sense to want to control other report items to change their location in the report based on the value of another item.  But I can't find a way to do it. 

It would be just like changing the appearance of an item based on the value of another item in the report.  There are many examples of this on the Internet.  Guess I'll have to chalk it up to a limitation of SSRS.

But now I have to wonder, what's the value in being able to hide report items if you still have to reserve space for them in the report?

Thanks,

Linn

Solved it!  I redesigned the report and added a row to the table and put the sub report in that table row.  Now when the row is hidden the sub report slides up and there is no blank space between the sub report and the table.  Woo Hoo!

• Marked as answer by lkubler 11 hours 10 minutes ago