About Groups

            Groups determine the hierarchy of data appearing in the report. Groups can do two things: separate a query's data into sets, and filter a query's data. When you create a query, Reports Builder automatically creates a group that contains the columns selected by the query. We can create additional groups to produce break levels in the report, either manually in the Data Model view or by using the Report Wizard to create a group above or group left report.


Usually the name of the group is defaulted with the first column selected in the query select statement.


Create groups when you want to treat some columns differently than others. For example, you create groups to:

·         Produce subtotals (that is, totals at a more granular level).

·         Create breaks or cross products in your report output.

With the exception of cross-product groups, all user-created groups are called break groups.

Break groups

We used to create break groups for produce subtotals, print columns in a different direction, create breaks, and so on. A break group suppresses duplicate values in sequential records.

For example, Reports Builder can select the department number for each record; however, the duplicate department numbers are not printed.

We have to drag all the columns down in order to create break groups leaving the group column above in the query group.

Cross-product groups

We can also create cross-product groups to perform mathematical cross products, which are generally used to create matrix reports.