This guide describes several useful or common expressions for altering the appearance of fields in reports and labels.
This guide is intended for collections or IT staff responsible for creating or updating a report or label.
Useful Expressions
[!info] What is an expression?
All formulas in JasperReports are defined through expressions. The default expression language is Java.An expression is a formula that operates on some values and returns a result, like a formula in a spreadsheet cell. A cell can have a simple value or a complex formula that refers to other values. In a spreadsheet, you refer to values contained in other cells; in JasperReports you use the report fields, parameters, and variables. Whatever is in your expression, when it is computed, it returns a value (which can be null).
This doc contains several common Jaspersoft Studio / iReport expressions, each shown “without” and “with” custom Java-based formatting. After each “with” example is a brief breakdown of how it works. If you have any questions or requests, please leave it as a reply below!
Trim Leading Zeros
Without Expression
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogNumber}
Example:
- Field value:
000000489 - Displayed:
000000489
With Expression
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogNumber} == null
|| $F{1.collectionobject.catalogNumber}.trim().isEmpty()
? ""
: String.valueOf(
Integer.parseInt(
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogNumber}.trim()
)
)
Example:
- Field value:
000000489 - Displayed:
489
Breakdown
- First check if there is a catalog number to determine if it should be parsed.
- Treat field as text → parse to number (drops zeros) → back to text.
Trim Trailing Zeros
Without Expression
$F{2.locality.minElevation}
Example:
- Field value:
"123.45000" - Displayed:
123.45000
With Expression
$F{2.locality.minElevation}== null
? ""
: $F{2.locality.minElevation}
.stripTrailingZeros()
.toPlainString()
Example:
- Field value:
"123.45000"→ parse→"123.45" - Field value:
"100.0"→ parse→"100.0"→ drop “.0” →100
Breakdown
- If blank, show nothing.
- Else parse → trims zeros → remove “.0” suffix if present.
Display Full Month Names
Cataloged Date
Without Expression
$F{…Day} + "-" + $F{…Month} + "-" + $F{…Year}
Example:
- Day:
5, Month:3, Year:2025→5-3-2025
With Expression
(
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericDay} == null
? ""
: $F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericDay} + " "
)
+
(
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericMonth} == null
? ""
: $F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericMonth} + " "
)
.replace("10","October")
.replace("11","November")
.replace("12","December")
.replace("1","January")
.replace("2","February")
.replace("3","March")
.replace("4","April")
.replace("5","May")
.replace("6","June")
.replace("7","July")
.replace("8","August")
.replace("9","September")
+
(
$F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericYear} == null
? ""
: $F{1.collectionobject.catalogedDateNumericYear}.toString()
)
Example:
- Day:
5, Month:3, Year:2025→
5 March 2025
Breakdown
- Skip missing parts.
- Add newline after day & month.
- Swap month number for name.
- Append year.
Determined Date
Without Expression
$F{…Month}
Example:
- Month:
11→11
With Expression
(
$F{…Day} == null ? "" : $F{…Day} + " "
) +
(
$F{…Month} == null ? "" : $F{…Month} + " "
)
.replace("1","January")…replace("12","December")
+
(
$F{…Year} == null ? "" : $F{…Year}.toString()
)
Example:
- Day:
12, Month:11, Year:2024→12 November 2024
Breakdown
- Skip missing parts.
- Add spaces after day & month.
- Convert month to name.
- Append year.
Conditional Display (Hide If Empty or Null)
Without Expression
"<br><b>Cataloguer</b>"
Displayed always:
Cataloguer
With Expression
(
$F{cataloger} == null
|| $F{cataloger}.isEmpty()
? ""
: "<br><b>Cataloguer</b>"
)
Examples:
- Field =
"Jane Doe"→<br><b>Cataloguer</b> - Field =
""→ `` (nothing)
Breakdown
- If blank/missing, show nothing; otherwise show the label.
Replace Value with Another (Size Abbreviations)
Without Expression
$F{1.collectionobject.text1}
Example:
- Field =
"Medium"→Medium
With Expression
$F{text1} == null
? ""
: $F{text1}.equals("Extra Small") ? "XS"
: $F{text1}.equals("Small") ? "S"
: $F{text1}.equals("Medium") ? "M"
: $F{text1}.equals("Large") ? "L"
: $F{text1}.equals("Extra Large") ? "XL"
: $F{text1}
Examples:
- Field =
"Medium"→M - Field =
"Extra Large"→XL
Breakdown
- If blank, show nothing.
- Else map known sizes to abbreviations; otherwise leave text.
Remove Trailing Zeroes
Without Expression
$F{2.locality.maxElevation}
Example:
- Field =
"200.0000"→200.0000
With Expression
String maxRaw = (String)$F{2.locality.maxElevation};
maxRaw == null || maxRaw.isEmpty()
? ""
: new java.math.BigDecimal(maxRaw)
.stripTrailingZeros()
.toPlainString()
Example:
- Field =
"200.0000"→200 - Field =
"123.45000"→123.45
Breakdown
- If blank, show nothing.
- Else use BigDecimal to strip extra zeros → plain text.
iReport Examples (Specify 6)
Specify 6 Expressions
Replace month with a roman numeral
If you want to replace the month with a roman numeral in iReport, use the following expression:
"Date: "+($F{Start_Date_(Day)}==null?"":$F{Start_Date_(Day)}+".").toString()+ ($F{Start_Date_(Month)}+".").toString().replace("10","X").replace("11","XI").replace("12","XII").replace("1","I").replace("2","II").replace("3","III").replace("4","IV").replace("5","V").replace("6","VI").replace("7","VII").replace("8","VIII").replace("9","IX")+($F{Start_Date_(Year)}==null?"":$F{Start_Date_(Year)}).toString()
Making dates display full month names instead of numbers
($F{Collection_Date_(Day)}==null?"":$F{Collection_Date_(Day)}+"
").toString()+($F{Collection_Date_(Month)}==null?"":$F{Collection_Date_(Month)}+"
").toString().replace("10","October").replace("11","November").replace("12","December").replace
("1","January").replace("2","February").replace("3","March").replace("4","April").replace("5","May
").replace("6","June").replace("7","July").replace("8","August").replace("9","September")
+($F{Collection_Date_(Year)}==null?"":$F{Collection_Date_(Year)}+"").toString()
Making dates have extra zeros
For example, you date looks like this 2012/7/9 and you want it to look like 2012/07/09. Note that
the format is year/month/day here, you can switch it around as you wish. Use this expression:
"Date: " + ($F{Date_(Year)}==null?"":$F{Date_(Year)}+"").toString()
+($F{Date_(Month)}==null?"":"/"+(($F{Date_(Month)}+"").toString().length() == 2 ?
($F{Date_(Month)}+"").toString(): "0" + $F{Date_(Month)}+"")).toString() +
($F{Date_(Day)}==null?"":"/" + (($F{Date_(Day)}+"").toString().length() == 2 ?
($F{Date_(Day)}+"").toString(): "0" + $F{Date_(Day)}+"")).toString()
Display date as “Month Day, Year”
This would display as something like November 19, 2000
($F{Date_(Month)}==null?"":$F{Date_(Month)}+" ").toString().replace("10","October").replace("11","November").replace("12","December").replace("1","January").replace("2","February").replace("3","March").replace("4","April").replace("5","May").replace("6","June").replace("7","July").replace("8","August").replace("9","September")+($F{Date_(Day)}==null?"":$F{Date_(Day)}+", ").toString()+($F{Date_(Year)}==null?"":$F{Date_(Year)}+" ").toString()
Getting rid of extra punctuation when fields are null
For example, you don’t want a report to look like ‘South America, Paraguay , , , ‘ if the rest of
some of the fields in the middle of the expression are null. To only make extra punctuation or
even words show up only when there is information in the field, format like this:
($F{Continent}==null?"":$F{Continent})+($F{Country}==null?"":", " +
$F{Country})+($F{State}==null?"":", " + $F{State})+($F{County}==null?"":", " +
$F{County})+($F{Locality_Name}==null?"":", " + $F{Locality_Name})+($F{Latitude1}==null?"":",
" + $F{Latitude1}+"°").toString()+($F{Longitude1}==null?"":", " + $F{Longitude1}+"°").toString()
Insert your own fields or do whatever you want, but this should work perfectly.