# Dynamic Table for Reports

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dynamic-table-for-reports/55469>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81\
**Created:** [January 28, 2022, 8:51am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dynamic-table-for-reports/55469 "2022-01-28T08:51:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 12:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/dynamic-table-for-reports/55469/2 "2022-01-28T12:44:15Z")

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You don't have to make multiple tables. You do have to use a table with enough columns for your worst case, and then hide the extras. Displaying variable layout datasets generally requires a script datasource to re-arrange things into a predictable format. Start here:

> [@How to manage the table component of a report when column number can change at runtime](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-manage-the-table-component-of-a-report-when-column-number-can-change-at-runtime/53383/3):
>
> This approach is probably the best you can do: TL/DR: Reporting tables cannot have variable numbers or columns, nor variable column names. You can fake it to a certain extent by hiding columns and using other variables for the column names in the table header. Consider using a script data source to transform any given dataset to have the needed column names while populating the variables for the column headers from that given dataset. And hiding the unused columns. Good luck.

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