Focusing Dimensional Data
In IBM®
Cognos® Analytics - Reporting, there are three approaches
to focusing dimensional data in a crosstab:
- drag data items to the edges of your crosstab
- drag data items to the context filter area
- create set expressions on the edges of your crosstab that return members or sets of members,
such as the
filterfunction
Note: Detail filters are supported and can be used with dimensional sources, but it's recommended to
use set expressions if possible. In general, summary and detail filters are recommended only for
focusing data in relational reporting.
The approach you choose should depend on the capabilities of the data source, the performance requirements, the persistence of the dataset, and how complex you want the report to be.
If you filter values that are floating-point numbers, you may encounter imprecise filtering results due to rounding or data truncation. Floating-point numbers may appear differently in the report than how than how they are stored in the data source. To ensure accurate results, your filter criteria should account for any rounding issues.
Consider the limitations when filtering dimensional data and when filtering data from SAP BW data sources.
You can also use prompts, or prompt controls, to allow users to provide input for the filter.