SQL Reporting - Can you have a group inside a group?

Question

Hi

I'm trying to produce a report that has multiple grouping but does not just show the group as the single field being grouped. I think it may be best shown with an example:

> Date <- Grouped, broken by page   
> Meeting type <- grouped
>       Meeting_Time Meeting_Place Meeting_Title Meeting_Priority
>           Agenda_item_1
>           Agenda_item_2
>           Agenda_item_3
>           Agenda_item_4
>       Meeting_Time Meeting_Place Meeting_Title Meeting_Priority
>           Agenda_item_1
>           Agenda_item_2
>       Meeting_Time Meeting_Place Meeting_Title Meeting_Priority
>           Agenda_item_1
>           Agenda_item_2
>           Agenda_item_3

Can this be done, and if so, how are the report components grouped, and what should the DataSet look like?

Answer 1

I am not sure I entirely follow you, so please clarify if I am misunderstanding anything.

Your dataset grouping should be very flexible. If you are uncertain how the data will be handled, I recommend not doing any grouping in producing the dataset.

I imagine your data set would have the following columns:

Date, MeetingType, MeetingTime, MeetingPlace, MeetingTitle, MeetingPriority, AgendaItem

To make it look like you have, here's what you can do:

---

1.) Add a table to the designer (6 Columns)
2.) Remove the header and footer
3.) Add a group on Date with no footer and page break at start checked
4.) Add the date to the first column, merge 1-6
5.) Add a group on MeetingType with no footer
6.) Add meeting type to column 2 in group 2 and merge 2 - 6
7.) Add a group on meeting time with no footer (you really should have an ID here instead or use name if it is unique)
8.) Add MeetingTime MeetingPlace MeetingTitle MeetingPriority to columns 3, 4, 5, 6 in group 3 (add a row above if you need a header here, don't use the table header)
9.) Add AgendaItem to column 4
10.) Merge 4 - 6

---

The rest is just formatting