SSRS: How can I use a Search parameter with multiple values? - visual-studio-2012

Question

I am creating a report that the business would like to use to spot check 5, 10 or 20 records at a time.
The request was to use a Search parameter (as opposed to dropdown params).
How can I create a Search parameter that will allow for multiple values separated by a comma?
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Don't worry about the length of this answer, most of it is a cut/paste job ! I've tried to explain each bit as we go so you understand it better, the actual amount of code you need to craft is minimal.
If you have SQL Server 2016 then you can take advantage of the new string_split function, if you have an older version you'll have to create a similar function yourself, or copy the one I created a few years back which does a similar thing.
Lets get the function created first: I've created it in the fn schema but you can obviously change this to whatever schema you like.
CREATE FUNCTION [fn].[Split](#sText varchar(8000), #sDelim varchar(20) = ' ')
RETURNS #retArray TABLE (idx smallint Primary Key, value varchar(8000))
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #idx smallint,
#value varchar(8000),
#bcontinue bit,
#iStrike smallint,
#iDelimlength tinyint
IF #sDelim = 'Space'
BEGIN
SET #sDelim = ' '
END
SET #idx = 0
SET #sText = LTrim(RTrim(#sText))
SET #iDelimlength = DATALENGTH(#sDelim)
SET #bcontinue = 1
IF NOT ((#iDelimlength = 0) or (#sDelim = 'Empty'))
BEGIN
WHILE #bcontinue = 1
BEGIN
--If you can find the delimiter in the text, retrieve the first element and
--insert it with its index into the return table.
IF CHARINDEX(#sDelim, #sText)>0
BEGIN
SET #value = SUBSTRING(#sText,1, CHARINDEX(#sDelim,#sText)-1)
BEGIN
INSERT #retArray (idx, value)
VALUES (#idx, #value)
END
--Trim the element and its delimiter from the front of the string.
--Increment the index and loop.
SET #iStrike = DATALENGTH(#value) + #iDelimlength
SET #idx = #idx + 1
SET #sText = LTrim(Right(#sText,DATALENGTH(#sText) - #iStrike))
END
ELSE
BEGIN
--If you can't find the delimiter in the text, #sText is the last value in
--#retArray.
SET #value = #sText
BEGIN
INSERT #retArray (idx, value)
VALUES (#idx, #value)
END
--Exit the WHILE loop.
SET #bcontinue = 0
END
END
END
ELSE
BEGIN
WHILE #bcontinue=1
BEGIN
--If the delimiter is an empty string, check for remaining text
--instead of a delimiter. Insert the first character into the
--retArray table. Trim the character from the front of the string.
--Increment the index and loop.
IF DATALENGTH(#sText)>1
BEGIN
SET #value = SUBSTRING(#sText,1,1)
BEGIN
INSERT #retArray (idx, value)
VALUES (#idx, #value)
END
SET #idx = #idx+1
SET #sText = SUBSTRING(#sText,2,DATALENGTH(#sText)-1)
END
ELSE
BEGIN
--One character remains.
--Insert the character, and exit the WHILE loop.
INSERT #retArray (idx, value)
VALUES (#idx, #sText)
SET #bcontinue = 0
END
END
END
RETURN
END
Once the function is created you can see what it outputs by doing something like
select * from fn.Split('Austria, Belgium, France', ',')
This returns the following
idx value
0 Austria
1 Belgium
2 France
Lets assume we have a geography table with the names of countries and their associated region, we can search for matching entries by simply joining to the output of the function something like this.
select g.CountryID, g.CountryDesc, g.ContinentDesc from dim.Geography g
join (SELECT * FROM fn.Split('Austria, Belgium, France', ',')) s
on g.CountryDesc = s.value
This, in my case, give me this output.
CountryID CountryDesc ContinentDesc
21 Austria West Europe
28 Belgium West Europe
89 France West Europe
To use the split function in your SSRS dataset, simply pass in the search text parameter so the query would now look something like this.
select g.CountryID, g.CountryDesc, g.ContinentDesc from dim.Geography g
join (SELECT * FROM fn.Split(#MySearchText, ',')) s
on g.CountryDesc = s.value