Passing muliple values ssrs sql - sql

Question

I have the following sql:
--DECLARE #absent nvarchar(20)
--SET #absent = 'Y' -- Not needed in sql as we are setting this in ssrs
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE Absent in #Absent
Here is the employees table.
Employee
Name Absent
Dan Y
Laura N
Ross N
James Y
I want to be able to filter between Y and N and both.
This is working fine for me in SSRS when I pass #absent both Y and N. However, when i convert to a stored procedure and run in SSRS, I now get an issue. I longer get any results.
ALTER PROCEDURE usp_GetEmployees
#Absent nvarchar(20)
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE Absent in #Absent
I've tried the line =join(parameters!Absent.value,",") in the parameter properties but no luck. I believe the issue is with the data type that is being passed in. It is just odd that it works before i converted to a usp.
Any help is much appreciated :)

Answer 1

Assuming you had a typo in your question and you meant to write
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE Absent in (#Absent)
The reason that this WILL work when used directly in a dataset query is that SSRS will take your multi-valued parameter's selected options, convert them into a comma separated list and inject them into the SQL. So what will actually be executed will be, for example,
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE Absent in ('Y', 'N')
This process is not the same when calling a stored procedure as SSRS cannot change the code inside your SP.
When passing multi-value parameters to a Stored Proc you would typically pass in an expression such as =JOIN(Parameters!myParam.Value, ",") . This passes in a string containing a comma separated list of your selected parameter values.
Inside the Stored Proc you would typically call a function to split this string back out into a table that you can join to.
There are plenty or articles describing this and providing a usable split function in case you don't have one. Check out the answers here https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/0ead7ceb-3fdd-4625-aa82-1d4195f984b1/passing-multivalue-parameter-in-stored-procedure-ssrs?forum=sqlreportingservices

Answer 2

Your original code wouldn't work directly in SQL. You can fix it using parentheses:
WHERE Absent in (#Absent)
This is exactly equivalent to:
WHERE Absent = #Absent
which is probably not what you intend. In the more recent versions of SQL Server, you can use:
WHERE Absent IN (SELECT value FROM string_split(#Absent, ','))
The ',' is my guess at the separator you are using. You can also use:
WHERE ',' + #Absent + ',' LIKE '%,' + Absent + ',%'

Answer 3

With SSRS, if using a Stored Procedure, the format Column IN (#Variable) doesn't work. That type of query only works if the SQL in directly in the SSRS Data Set's definition. Then SSRS will replace the value of #Variable and (apparently) securely inject the values in a delimited and quoted list.
For something as simple this, you are, in truth, better off likely just putting the below statement in the dataset in SSRS:
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE Absent in (#Absent);
If not, and you need to use a Stored Procedure, then SSRS passes a delimited string as the parameter. In such cases you need to use a splitter. Considering you tag BIDS (visual-studio-2008) then you need to use a really old way of doing this. I also strongly recommend you look at upgrade paths ASAP.
For 2008, then I recommend delimitedsplit8K (or delimitedsplitN4K if using an nvarchar). Then your Procedure will look like this:
ALTER PROCEDURE usp_GetEmployees #Absent nvarchar(4000) AS
BEGIN
SELECT E.* --YOu should replace this with your actual columns
FROM Employee E
JOIN dbo.delimitedsplitN4K(#Absent,',') DS ON E.Absent = DS.item;
END;