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Troubleshooting Drill‑Down Issues with Spaces in Column Values

Troubleshooting


Problem

Sometimes users encounter a problem with drill‑down reports: when they drill into a report using a particular column (e.g., Product), the drill‑down view returns no data and displays “No rows to display.”  what steps can be taken to resolve the error?

Symptom

Users attempt to click or run the report, which is set up to drill into a specific column defined in the report configuration (e.g., Product), but the drill‑down returns no data.

Cause

The problem typically occurs when the column used for drilling contains leading or trailing blank spaces in its values, which prevents the drill‑down from returning data.


 


 

Diagnosing The Problem

  • Review the data in the model that supplies to the report using the drill down.
  • Open the model and apply a filter using the values of the target column (e.g., Product).
  • The drill‑down function matches exact column values in the model, so the filter must use the syntax =.
  • If the column values contain no spaces, the filter should return the expected rows.
  • When all values in the column have spaces, the filter will result in "No rows to display"
  • If only some values contain spaces, those specific entries will not match, causing the drill‑down report to show no data for them and shows the discrepancy in the drill down report.

 

 

Resolving The Problem

  • It’s necessary to eliminate any leading or trailing blanks in the column (e.g., Product). Use the Trim() function to strip those spaces. 

  • You can add this formula directly to the source table, or, if the table doesn’t already have a formula for that column, create a new column with it. The syntax looks like this: 

    Product = Trim($_)

  • If the column already has a formula, simply incorporate the Trim() function into that existing expression to remove the spaces.
  • Adding this formula removes the spaces from the column, which resolves the issue and allows the drill‑down to work correctly.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
07 September 2026

UID

ibm17269136