How To Dynamically Populate a Data Report in Visual Basic

This article explains how to create a report without binding the report to any data at design time. This allows you to generate a report without knowing the column names within the Data Source.

When using the Data Report, textboxes must be bound to an ADO recordset. In some situations it is necessary to generate this data report at runtime without knowing the column names at design time. To do this you must first have a data report included in your project with the correct number of controls needed to display the data being retrieved. Then open an ADO recordset and loop through this recordset populating the controls that were placed on the data report. The following code demonstrates how to accomplish this.

Sample Code

1. Start a new Visual Basic Standard EXE project. Form1 is added by default.
2. From the Project menu, click References, and select the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects.
3. From the Project menu select "Add Data Report". If there is no option for a Data Report then you will need to choose Components from the Project and a dialog box is displayed. Click on the Designers tab and add a reference to the Data Report.
4. In the Data Report properties change the Data Report name to DR.
5. Place two report Labels and two report Textboxes in the Detail Section of the report.
6. Place a command button on Form1 named command1.
7. Place the following code into Form1.

      Dim cn As New ADODB.Connection
      Dim rs As New ADODB.Recordset
      Dim cmd As New ADODB.Command
   
      Private Sub Command1_Click()
      Dim q As Integer
      Dim intCtrl As Integer
      Dim x As Integer
      Dim z As Integer
      x = 0
      q = 0
      z = 0
   
      With DR
      .Hide
      Set .DataSource = rs
      .DataMember = ""
      With .Sections("Section1").Controls
          For intCtrl = 1 To .Count
        If TypeOf .Item(intCtrl) Is RptLabel Then
                   .Item(intCtrl).Caption = rs.Fields(q).Name & " :"
                    q = q + 1
               End If
               If TypeOf .Item(intCtrl) Is RptTextBox Then
                   .Item(intCtrl).DataMember = ""
                   .Item(intCtrl).DataField = rs(z).Name
                   z = z + 1
               End If
       Next intCtrl
      End With
      .Refresh
      .Show
      End With
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub Form_Load()
   
       Command1.Caption = "Show Report"
   
       cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
               "Data Source=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual    Studio\VB98\Nwind.mdb;"
       
       With cmd
           .ActiveConnection = cn
           .CommandType = adCmdText
           .CommandText = "Select FirstName, Lastname from Employees"
           .Execute
       End With
       
       With rs
           .ActiveConnection = cn
           .CursorLocation = adUseClient
           .Open cmd
       End With
   
      End Sub
   					

8. Change the Data Source Property in the connect string to the path to your Northwind MDB.
9. Save and Run the Project. You should see a Data Report created with the information returned from the Northwind database.

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Terrell D. Andrews, Microsoft Corporation.