SSRS subtract a minus number from list in a sum column

Question

I have an SSRS dataset query that has a SUM on a column of values, which represent decimal time of a persons absence, which the admin staff enter every time an absence is recorded for a student. In the uni database the staff seem to add absence records that also show hours that should be removed from a record, and they do this by simply putting a minus in front of the number. Is it possible to get this column to recognise the minus as a subtraction and remove it from the total? You can see at the bottom of the list a record was entered for 187.50 hours absent, but then another record added for that same absence period which noted that 150.00 of those hours should be subtracted (they fulfilled the shortfall in placement hours another way). Hope I've explained that query, have attached a screenshot of the dataset query. I'm not sure if I added the screenshot correctly. Thanks.

Answer 1

I think you can just add a CASE statement to check for the minus sign in the SUM and use 0 if it is a negative number.

CAST(dbo.srs_enl.enl_udfb AS DECIMAL(27, 2))

would become

CAST(CASE WHEN LEFT(dbo.srs_enl.enl_udfb, 1) = '-' THEN 0 ELSE dbo.srs_enl.enl_udfb END AS DECIMAL(27, 2))

or you could use Boolean logic, multiplying the value by 0 if it's less than 0:

CAST(dbo.srs_enl.enl_udfb AS DECIMAL(27, 2)) * CASE WHEN CAST(dbo.srs_enl.enl_udfb AS INT) < 0 THEN 0 ELSE 1 END

Answer 2

I assume you would want to see the final two records appearing as a single record with 37.50 in the final column? If that's correct then it looks like your grouping by too many columns.

You seem to be grouping by

• sab_stuc - OK
• sab_begd - OK
• sab_endf - OK
• enl_eltc - does not appear in output, can probably be removed from GROUP BY clause
• enl_udfd - does not appear in output, can probably be removed from GROUP BY clause
• enl_ufdb - the value being summed so should be removed from GROUP BY clause

If you remove the 3 columns from the group by clause the sum should 'just work' as expected.

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One more thing... Try to alias table names, it will make you SQL much easier to read.

So something like

SELECT 
      dbo.TableA.columnA, dbo.TableB.columnB
      FROM dbo.TableA
          JOIN dbo.TableB on dbo.TableA.myKeyColumn = dbo.TableB.myKeyColumn
      ORDER BY dbo.TableA.columnA

using aliases would look like this

SELECT 
      a.columnA, b.columnB
      FROM dbo.TableA a
          JOIN dbo.TableB b on a.myKeyColumn = b.myKeyColumn
      ORDER BY a.columnA