In SSRS 2008, is there any way to add all dataset fields to a table at once?

Question

I'm working with SSRS for the first time. When adding a table to a report, is there any way to add all fields of a dataset to it at once or does it have to be done individually? Drag & drop, insert column -> right is a pain when there are a lot of fields that are being displayed.

Answer 1

It's a bit of a workaround, but the "Add new report" wizard automatically creates a table with the specified columns and groups from your given dataset. I don't believe there's a way to trigger this functionality from within an existing report, but you could create a "sacrificial" report to get what you're looking for - run through the wizard, generate the table, and copy / paste it into your original report. As long as your datasets are the same, it should work just fine...

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I have a similar problem as the op and am new to SSRS/BIDS. And, I am updating a previously created report which (for me) is too complex to just quickly re-create using the "wizard generation" as the datasource is a web service (with code-generated web service parameters, lots of calc'd datasource fields, etc). It is faster to just copy the .rdl, delete all, and create the table manually.

I thought I would add that (only a little better than op's method, but nonetheless it is time-saving) you can just drag and drop to populate columns w/o the "right click > insert column > right". Just drag the dataset field to the place you want it in the table and BIDS/SSRS will automatically insert a new column. It also helps to drag the latter columns first (i.e. always inserting a previous column) so you don't have to scroll to the right all the time.