Inserting a single data item

You can insert a single data item anywhere in your report using the singleton object. The singleton object retrieves only the first row value for that query. Inserting a single data item is useful when you want to show a value that is independent from the rest of the values in the report or when you want to insert some boilerplate text, such as a company name and address. For example, you can add the total revenue value in the header of each page in a report.

You can associate multiple singleton objects with a single query in relational reporting and dimensional reporting to optimize performance, such as when all the data items in the singleton are from the same database table. In addition, two or more singletons can reference data items from the same query. This is useful when using a single query is more efficient to display a set of single values than using multiple queries.

You can also filter the data item in the singleton. For example, you can show the total revenue for only the year 2012.

Queries that are associated to a singleton object are not supported when producing report output in delimited text (CSV) format.

Tip: The Returns by Damage, Failed Orders and Complaints in 2012 sample report in the GO Data Warehouse (analysis) package includes a singleton.

Procedure

  1. Click the Toolbox icon The toolbox icon and drag Singleton to the report.

    An empty data container is created.

  2. From the Source tab Source tab, drag a data item into the Singleton container.
    Tip: To create a singleton, you can also drag a measure data item anywhere in your report layout. When you drag a measure on to the canvas, you get a summarized text item with a descriptive label and formatting. If you drag a categorical data item in your report layout, a list will be created.
  3. To change the query associated to the singleton object, select the singleton, click the Show properties icon Show properties icon, and in the Properties pane, double-click the Query property and make changes.

Results

When the report is run, the first row value for the data item is retrieved.