If you ever want to check the parameters submitted with a report for alpha numeric characters (so it doesn't contain symbols, punctuations, etc) then you should do this at the database level, and then get the report to complete the check:
The Plan
- User enters value in parameters and clicks on "View Report"
- Report passes parameter to dataset which gets formatted by the database
- Report retrieves (select) formatted parameter as a field value to use
- Report loads with changes based on returned value.
The Gist
- Add database level parameter check
- Add IIF in SSRS to confirm
Database Level AlphaNumeric Check
You may have better ways to do this but here are my database level checks for alphanumeric values:
-- ORACLE
-- 0 if is alphanumeric, 1 or more if not alpha numeric.
SELECT
(LENGTH(TRIM(TRANSLATE(:ParameterToCheck, 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789', ' ')))) AS NotAlphaNumeric
FROM
...
-- Transact-SQL
-- 0 if is alphanumeric, 1 or more if not alpha numeric.
SELECT
PATINDEX('%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%' , @ParameterToCheck) AS NotAlphaNumeric
FROM
...
-- MySQL
-- 1 if is alphanumeric, 0 if not alpha numeric.
SELECT
@ParameterToCheck REGEXP '^[A-Za-z0-9]+$' AS AlphaNumeric
FROM
...
Usage
-- Using the ORACLE example
SELECT
Column1,
Column2,
(LENGTH(
TRIM(
TRANSLATE(
:ParameterToCheck,
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789',
' '
)
)
)) AS NotAlphaNumeric
FROM
YourDataSetTable
WHERE
ThisRecord = :UserSpecifiedID
-- where :UserSpecifiedID is one of the report parameters (Oracle local variable)
-- where :ParameterToCheck is another of the report parameters (Oracle local variable)
MDX Check/*
For Expression Value.
Remember to apply to both ACTION and if you use color change FONT.
Note for MySQL solution change 0 to 1.
*/
=IIF(
Parameters!ParameterToCheck.Value"" AND Fields!NOTALPHANUMERIC.Value=0,
"Valid",
"Not Valid"
)
AdditionalIf like us, you've made a report containing a link dependent on parameters submitted, we had to apply a similar IIF statement block to the Font color and the Action target as well within SSRS.
Discussion
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