Hide multiple rows or columns in SSRS report with same Expression at same time

Question

I have a report containing a Tablix/table with sets of rows and columns which I am hiding conditionally using Expressions, via the Column/Row Visibility dialog.

If for example I have 3 columns which I want to all have the same Expression to determine their visibility, is there any way for me to achieve this without opening the Column Visibility dialog for each Column and entering the appropriate Expression?

I've tried selecting multiple columns, but then the right-click context menu no longer offers the Column Visibility option (it's greyed out) and I have also tried out the Hidden property of the columns (which can be amended in bulk by selecting multiple columns), but this only stops the columns from being rendered, leaving a blank space where they used to be (rather than how Column Visibility works, where columns to the right of the hidden columns are moved across to fill the gap, like hiding columns in an Excel sheet).

Is it possible to achieve what I'm after, or will I have to continue opening the Column/Row Visibility dialog for each column/row I wish to conditionally hide/show?

Answer 1

If the columns you want to control the visibility for are next to each other, you can create a Column Group for them and manage the visibility via the Group.

• Add a new column group at the appropriate level so that only the relevant columns will be included.
  • If you already have Column Groups this will likely be a Child Group or an Adjacent Group.
  • If not, you can create an initial Column Group by dragging a Dataset field from the Report Data into the Groups pane.
• Insert new columns inside the new group, and move the data from your existing relevant columns into the group.
• The new group does not need to repeat, so in it's properties window set Group on: to a plain text value, e.g. "1".
• Input the desired visibility settings into the Visibility page of the properties window.
• For each of the individual columns inside the group set the Hidden property to False, to remove any other expressions or settings that might interfere.