Creating a static list of values
To create a static list of values for a list box, combo box, or a set of radio buttons, use one or both of the following techniques:
Import values from a data set field.
Type each value to display.
To display all the unique values in a data set field, which is the typical case, import the values from the data set field. You can type the values, but this task would be tedious. Type a value only to display a value that is not in the data set field, such as ranges of values (0–100, 101–200, and so on).
To import all values from a data set field, first create a data set that retrieves the values. The query in the following example retrieves the unique values from the country field in the Customers table. You would specify this simple query to populate a parameter list with all the country names.
SELECT DISTINCT country
FROM Customers
Sometimes the values in a data set field are not in a suitable form or descriptive enough for report users. For example, the values in a territory field might use abbreviations, such as NA, EMEA, or APAC. For such cases, it is preferable to display the full names to the user. You do so by providing alternate values in the Display Text property.
If you are creating a report to be viewed in multiple locales, you can localize each parameter value by providing a resource key in the Display Text Key property. A resource key is a text string in an external source that is translated, or localized, into different languages. For more information about resource keys and localization, see Localizing Text.