Using Fields in Multiple Datasets in SSRS

Question

I understand Crystal Reports has fallen out of favor with some in the development community and perhaps rightly so: I haven\'t used it in about 15 years. But when I did, I c

Answer 1

Neither Crystal nor SSRS will allow you to directly compare values in two different datasets on a row-by-row basis.

In both tools:

• If both datasets come from the same relational database, then the simplest way to compare values is to combine the two datasets into a single query.
• If both datasets come from different relational databases that can be linked together (for example, by using Linked Servers in SQLServer, or Database Links in Oracle), then the simplest way to compare values is to combine the two datasets into a single query that accesses both linked databases.
• If both datasets come from datasources that cannot be directly linked together, then the two datasets can be linked together in Crystal/SSRS by means of a subreport. (More details on subreports in SSRS here.)

There is a reporting tool called BIRT that has a similar reporting paradigm to SSRS (ie. a web-style layout, instead of Crystal's banded reporting approach), includes much the same functionality as SSRS, is Open Source and enables you to link datasets together directly to create joint datasets. However, it is less intuitive to use than either Crystal or SSRS.