Structure selection functions
To select structure selection functions, click in Structure Selection.
Range
You can select elements from one point in the hierarchy to another point below it and include the elements in between. Select the Range function and then select the From and To elements in the Selection Settings section.
Elements underneath
You can select a parent and display the elements at a selected level below it (for example, select a year as the parent and the quarters and months as levels below it).
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| All Including Parent | Adds the parent and its children to the list. |
| All Excluding Parent | Adds the children to the list but not the parent. |
| All Base Elements | If the parent has only base elements beneath it in the hierarchy, this option has the same effect as All Excluding Parent. If the parent has further parents beneath it, as well as base elements, this option displays only the base elements. |
Descendants
Here you select a level in a list as the parent and return its descendants. You can also select the level at which the descendants are displayed.
Or, you can specify the level in terms of its distance from the parent element. This would do this, for example, in a dynamic report in which users can choose from which dimension to select a level.
In the Best Practices Templates database provided with Application Studio is the Product dimension. You could select Summer Tires (the product group) as the parent and use the Descendants function to return its descendants at the Tire level (distance = 1). This returns the two product sub groups - S7000 Powergy and S8000 Energy.
Or, you could return the descendants at the Size level (distance =2). This returns the six products in the two product sub groups.
To use the Descendants function:
- Select in Structure Selection.
- In Selection Settings, select the parent element.
- Select the Level.
To specify the level in terms of distance from the parent element:
Select from the Level list.
Specify the level as ="N" (where N is a numerical value which represents the distance from the parent element).
Select a flag in the Flag list to specify the elements to be displayed in more detail. The examples given are all based on the Best Practices Templates database.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| After | Returns the descendants from all levels below the selected level. |
| Example |
Select Car Tires Summer as the parent and Product Group as the level. This returns the two Product Sub Groups (S7000 Powergy and S8000 Energy) with each having drilldown to their three product names. |
| Before | Returns the descendants from all levels above the selected level but not from the level itself. |
| Example | Select All Tires as the parent and Tire as the level.
As they are all above the selected level, this returns All Tires and the five product groups with drilldown to their sub groups. The product names are not returned. |
| Before & After | Returns the descendants from all levels subordinate to the parent level but not from the level itself. |
| Example |
Select All Tires as the parent and Size as the level. Product Group, Tires and Size are all below All Tires but, as Size is the selected level, the tire sizes are not displayed. The product groups are displayed with drilldown to the tires that they contain. |
| Base Elements | Returns all the elements at the selected level. |
| Example |
Select All Tires as the parent and Size as the level. This displays all the tire sizes. |
| Self | Returns all elements at the selected level within the selected parent. |
| Example | Select Car Tires Winter as the parent and Size as the level.
This displays the tire sizes within Car Tires Winter. |
| Self & After | Returns the descendants of the selected level and of the levels below. |
| Example |
Select Car Tires Summer as the parent and Product Group as the level. This returns the parent with drill-down to both its tires and their sizes. |
| Self & Before | Returns all elements of the selected level and of the levels above it. |
| Example |
Select All Tires as the parent and Size as the level. This displays all the tires and the levels above them - Tires and Product Groups. |
| Self & Before & After | Returns the descendants from all levels above the selected level but not from the level itself. |
| Example |
Select All Tires as the parent and Size as the level. This returns the product sub groups, the product groups above them and the product names below them. |
To add parents to a level, click and select . Select the parent, the level and the flag from the lists in Selection Settings.
Periods to date
Periods to date is used with time-based lists. You specify a level of a hierarchy and select a period. The function determines which element at the specified level of the hierarchy is the parent of the selected period. If there are siblings of the selected period which are prior to it, the function returns them, and the selected period.
Click and select . Select the a period and a hierarchy level from the list in Selection Settings.
For example, the Period hierarchy of the Best Practices sample database has these four levels:
- 1 - All Years
- 2 - Years
- 3 - Quarters
- 4 - Months
At level 1, the parent of December 2003 is All Years.
At level 2, the parent of December 2003 is 2003.
At level 3, the parent of December 2003 is Quarter 4 2003.
So, if you select December 2003 and Level 3, the function returns October 2003, November 2003, and December 2003. That is, October 2003 and November 2003 are siblings of December 2003 within Quarter 4 2003, and they are prior to it.
If you select October 2003 and Level 3, the function returns only October 2003. In Quarter 4 2003, none of the siblings of October 2003 is prior to it.
Previous periods
To add elements before and including a specified element to a time-based list, click and select . Select the starting element and the number of elements to add (the Index).
Select level
To add all elements at a specified level of the hierarchy, click . The names of the hierarchy levels and the number of elements at each level are displayed. Select a level.
Select set
See Named Sets and Using Named Sets.
See these topics:
Find Element
You can search the elements within a dimension by their captions or by their unique names.
To search for elements:
- Click .
- Enter a search term and specify whether to search in the Element Caption or Element Unique Name.
- Click . All elements which match your search criteria are listed.
- Select the elements which you want to add to the list definition and click . The selected elements are added to the lower half of the Structure Selection pane. The results of any subsequent searches are also added. To remove selected elements from a list definition, click them in the lower half of the pane and click .