Add Alternative Row Color to SSRS Report

In this article, we will show you how to add Alternative Row Color to SSRS Report. It is one of the Frequently asked questions by users. So, here, we will show you the step-by-step approach to adding Alternative Row Colors to SSRS Report using an Expression with an example.

We are going to use the below-shown DataSet to explain the same. Please refer to Embedded Data Source and Dataset articles to understand the steps involved in creating Embedded Data Source and Dataset that we used for this SSRS report.

And the Custom SQL query that we used in the above Dataset is:

SELECT [FirstName] +  ' ' + [LastName] AS FullName
      ,[Education]
      ,[Occupation]
      ,[YearlyIncome]
      ,[Sales]
      ,[HireDate]
  FROM [Employee]

Data written by the above query is:

How to add Alternative Row Color to SSRS Report

We are going to use the previously designed report, as we have shown below. Please refer to the Table, Format Table article to understand the steps involved in creating Table & format. Next, visit the headers and Footer article for adding Page headers and footers.

Sample Table to add Alternative Row Color to SSRS Report 2

Let me show you the Preview.

When you select the details row, you have an option called Background color in the properties pane. You can use all the predefined ones if you want to make the standard color for all the records returned by the report.

Add Alternative Row Color to SSRS Report

Here our task is to add alternate row color to SSRS Report. It means we have to use some conditions to check for alternating rows.

To do so, Please click on the Expression hyperlink under the Background Color property.

Add Alternative Row Color to a SSRS Report 4

Once you click on the Expression hyperlink, a new window called Expression will open. Use this expression window to find them.

Add Alternative Row Color to a SSRS Report Expression 5

Within the Expression, we are going to use the IIF condition to check whether the row number is even or not. If it is even, Pale Turquoise, otherwise Plum. By this, we can add alternative row colors to the SSRS report.

=IIF(RowNumber(Nothing) MOD 2 = 0, "PaleTurquoise", "Plum")

Expression for alternative background color to a SSRS report 6

Once completed, Click OK to close the window.

Add Alternative Row Color to a SSRS Report 7

As you can see that our report preview is displaying the specified colors as the alternate row color in SSRS Report