difference between + and & in ssrs expression

Question

I am working on SSRS Report.

I have one question, what is the difference between + and & in ssrs-expression?

Please share your answer with short example. Thanks.

Answer 1

Actually its depends on how you are going to use them.

1.) For Concatenation purpose

According to MSDN:

• using & and + for concatenation will result to the same behaviour or output. It will only concatenates two strings.

Example:

= 1 & 2

Output: 12

= "1" + "2"

Output: 12

2.) For Arithmetic purpose

According to MSDN:

• using + for arithmetic purpose will add the two numbers together

Example:

= 1 + 2 //(using two numbers)

Output: 3

= 1 + "2" //(using a number and a number with quotes)

Output: 3
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Exceptions

Now there are exceptions that an integer and a string is mixed up or with other types

Example:

= 1 + "two"

Output: #Error -> this is because they are incompatible with each other.

• Workaround - use a conversion functions to convert the default data type for a field to the data type needed for calculations or to combine text.

Example:

= CSTR(1) + "two"

Output: 1two

There are other more conversion functions which you can use depending on your needs.