Creating reports with a matrix data region

In the previous recipe, you created a report using a Table. A table is great when an entire row is considered a single entity; all of the data on that row together represents what a user needs to know.

Consider a situation where a user is looking at data in aggregate. They are looking for a single data point, such as the grand total sales of product X for the current year. These reports are typically done as a pivot table, a style of report in which both the rows and columns have information and it is the intersection of the row and column that contains the valuable piece of data.

Excel is famous for creating these types of reports, and we can achieve the same result in SSRS by using a Matrix.

Getting ready

We will once again use the WideWorldImportersDW database for our demo. Rather than using the Query Designer in SSRS, we'll use SQL Server Management Studio to develop our query.

In addition to being a bit easier for an experienced developer...