In many places, ReportServer supports entering formulas. Formula expressions are always enclosed by the character sequence ${}. The actual expression is placed between the curly braces. ReportServer uses the Unified Expression Language (EL) standardized in JSR-245 (https://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=245).
In formula expressions you can use simple calculations as well as string functions. For example, the expression ${3 + 5} calculates the number 8. Depending on the context, different objects/replacements are available to you in expressions.
In addition to the basic arithmetic operations, the following mathematical operations are implemented:
| math:random() | Returns a random number between 0 and 1 |
| math:sin(Double) | Calculates the sine |
| math:cos(Double) | Calculates the cosine |
| math:tan(Double) | Calculates the tangent |
| math:abs(Double) | Returns the absolute value of a number |
| math:ceil(Double) | Rounds the given number up |
| math:floor(Double) | Rounds the given number down |
| math:round(Double) | Rounds the given number |
| math:max(Double, Double) | Returns the larger value |
| math:min(Double, Double) | Returns the smaller value |
| math:pow(Double, Double) | Returns the first value raised to the power of the second |
| math:log(Double) | Returns the natural logarithm |
| math:exp(Double) | Calculates e to the power of the given value |
| math:sqrt(Double) | Returns the square root |
| math:signum(Double) | Calculates the signum function |
For processing strings, in addition to methods of the Java String object, the following helper methods are available:
| sutils:left(String, int) | Returns the first characters of the string |
| sutils:right(String, int) | Returns the last characters of the string |
For conditional expressions you can use the ternary operator
Condition ? expression if true : expression if falseFor example, the following expression
${math:random() < 0.5 ? true : false}returns a boolean value. If the random number is less than 0.5 (this happens in 50% of cases), TRUE is returned; otherwise FALSE is returned.
If an object is provided to you via a replacement, you can call methods on it. In filters or in date parameters, for example, the object "today" is available. To call a method of the object, write ${today.METHODNAME()}. "today" returns a date relative to the current date. If you want to select the first day of the current month, write ${today.firstDay()}. The following methods are available on the today object.
| firstDay | Sets the calendar to midnight of the first day of the current month. |
| lastDay | Sets the calendar to the last second of the last day of the current month. |
| addDays | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of days. |
| addMonths | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of months. |
| addYears | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of years. |
| setDay | Sets the calendar to the specified day. |
| setMonth | Sets the calendar to the specified month. |
| setYear | Sets the calendar to the specified year. |
| clearTime | Resets the time to midnight. |
| addHours | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of hours. |
| addMinutes | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of minutes. |
| addSeconds | Moves the calendar forward/backward by the specified number of seconds. |
| setHours | Sets the time to the specified hour. |
| setMinutes | Sets the time to the specified minutes. |
| setSeconds | Sets the time to the specified seconds. |
| format | Converts the date to text in the specified format. This is necessary to perform comparisons on columns that are not of type Date (see the Date format table in Appendix C.). |
Example: You want to filter all invoices from the previous month. You can define the following inclusion interval:
${today.firstDay().addMonths(-1)} - ${today.firstDay().addSeconds(-1)}