Dimensional Reporting StyleThe dimensional reporting style is recommended for dimensionally-modeledrelational (DMR) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) data sources.Dimensional data is best represented by crosstabs, maps, and charts. This data isshown in IBM Cognos Report Studio in dimensions, hierarchies, levels, andmembers.In dimensional reporting, you summarize data by using member summaries andwithin set aggregation. You focus data in dimensional reporting by adding only therelevant members to the edge of a crosstab or to the context filter. You can alsoenable drilling up and drilling down in dimensional reports.IBM Cognos Analysis Studio and IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced are alsoavailable to work with dimensional data.Add Dimensional Data to a ReportFor dimensional and mixed model data sources, you can view the full data tree byclicking the view package tree button in the Source tab. You can switch to thedimensional-only data tree by clicking the view members tree button .Note: We recommend using dimensional data in the dimensional reporting style.However, if you are using relational data, see “Add Relational Data to a Report”on page 279.If you are working with a dimensional data source, data items are organizedhierarchically. Dimensional data sources include OLAP and dimensionally-modeledrelational (DMR) data sources. The Source tab shows a metadata-based viewof the data.

Note: The names of levels and members in a dimension come from the model. It isthe responsibility of the modeler to provide meaningful names.1. PackagePackages are subsets of a model containing items that you can insert in areport.2. DimensionDimensions are broad groupings of descriptive data about a major aspect of abusiness, such as products, dates, or markets.3. Level hierarchyLevel hierarchies are more specific groupings within a dimension. For example,for the Years dimension, data can be organized into smaller groups, such asYears, Current Month, and Last Month.4. Members folderMembers folders contain the available members for a hierarchy or level. Forexample, the Members folder for the Years level hierarchy contains everythingfound in the Year, Quarter, and Month levels.5. LevelLevels are positions within the dimensional hierarchy that contain informationat the same order of detail and have attributes in common. Multiple levels canexist within a level hierarchy, beginning with a root level. For example, theYears level hierarchy has the following related levels.Level Level name DescriptionRoot Years The root level.First Year Years in the Years root level.For example, 2004, 2003, and2002.Second Quarter Quarters for each year in theYear level. For example, 2004Q1, 2004 Q2, and 2004 Q3.Third Month Months for each quarter inthe Quarter level. For

example, Jan., Feb., and Mar.Tip: The Measures dimension contains the measures available in the datasource.6. Member propertyMember properties are attributes that each member possesses. For example,gender could be a property for all employee members. For more informationabout member properties, see “Insert a Member Property”.

Related concepts:“Limited Support for Relational Functions When Used with OLAP Data Sources”on page 597When working with an OLAP data source, we recommend that you not userelational functions, such as substring and concatenation functions, in a report thatalso contains a measure with the Aggregate Function property set to Calculated orAutomatic in the model. If you do so, you may encounter unexpected results. Forexample, some summaries are calculated using the Minimum function instead ofthe aggregate function derived from the individual query items.Customize the Source TreeWhen using dimensional data, you can customize how you see data in the sourcetree. You can select a full package tree view that shows dimensions, hierarchies,levels, an optional members folder, and member properties.Or you can select a members-only tree view, such as the one in IBM CognosAnalysis Studio. This view allows you to add only members in your report.Procedure1. Click the Source tab .2. To view the members-only tree view, click the view members tree button .3. To view the full package tree, click the view package tree button .4. To change what is included in the tree, right-click and click Package TreeSettings.Use the Preview pane to choose the appropriate settings.Insert a MemberBy default, when you insert members from the source tree into your report withIBM Cognos Report Studio, single members are inserted without any details orchildren. You can change how members are inserted. For example, you may wantto insert a member along with all its children or insert only the member's children.Or you may want to insert members as a set.When you double-click a member that you have already inserted in your report,by default, its children are inserted after the parent member. You can controlwhether the children are inserted before or after, nested, or not inserted at all: fromthe Tools menu, click Options, and then choose a setting on the Edit tab.When inserting members into a crosstab, ensure that you insert members from thesame hierarchy on only one of the crosstab edges. If you insert members from thesame hierarchy on both edges of the crosstab, you may encounter unexpectedresults. For example, a report that uses members from years in the rows andQuarters in the columns is very difficult to read because the useful numbers aredistributed over a large area of mostly blank cells.Calculated members from the data source also appear in the source tree. However,calculated members in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes do notappear in the list of descendants in the query. If you want these calculatedmembers to appear in a report or a prompt, you must insert them explicitly.Chapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 321Procedure1. From the Source tab , click the insert single member button and

select how to insert members.2. If you want to insert members within a set instead of inserting individualmembers, click the create sets for members button .3. Do one of the following:v To insert a member above or below another member, drag the new memberabove or below a cell.A flashing black bar appears where you can drop the new member.v To replace a member, drag the new member to the cell with the member toreplace.A flashing black box appears where you can drop the new member.Search for a MemberYou can perform a member search to quickly find data.You can control the number of members that are returned in a search by specifyinga value for the Member display count limit (in source tree) option (Tools,Options, Advanced tab).Procedure1. From the Source tab , select and then right-click a hierarchy or leveland click Search.2. In the Words box, type the words or characters for which to search.3. Click the search parameter to use.4. To search all descendants instead of just the immediate children, select theSearch all descendants check box.For example, when performing a search in a hierarchy, selecting this check boxreturns members found in all the levels of the hierarchy.5. Click Search.ResultsThe search results appear in a hierarchical structure on the Search tab . Youcan browse the hierarchy to explore members at lower levels.Tip: You can insert members directly from the Search tab into a report. This cansave you time, because you do not have to define a filter. For example, instead ofinserting Product line from the Source tab and adding a filter for CampingEquipment, you can insert Camping Equipment from the Search tab.Nest MembersWhen you insert members in your report, you may want to nest them in anotherrow or column to make your report easier to use. You can nest members fromdifferent dimensions. You can also nest sets.For example, in the following report, the quarters (Q1 to Q4) were selected fromthe Time dimension and nested only for the GO Americas member, which is from322 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User Guidea different dimension.When you filter out children from nested sets, the parent set still appears in yourreport. To avoid this, filter only the top level set and nest only the complete set ofdescendants at the desired levels.ProcedureFrom the Source tab , drag the members to the work area.A flashing black bar indicates where you can drop an item.Insert a HierarchyYou can quickly insert entire hierarchies in a report.When using an IBM Cognos PowerCube, a SSAS cube, or a dimensionally-modeledrelational data source, you can insert multiple hierarchies from the same dimensionin a crosstab. For example, you can place one hierarchy from a dimension on anedge of the crosstab and nest another hierarchy from the same dimension on thesame edge, on another edge, or in the Context filter area.

You can also perform arithmetic, percentage, and ranking calculations usingmultiple hierarchies.Summary or analytic calculations that refer to different hierarchies from the samedimension, such as total, count, average, minimum, and maximum, are notsupported. These calculations cause an OP-ERR-0250 error.Procedure1. From the Source tab , drag the hierarchy to the report.2. In the Insert Hierarchy dialog box, choose which members to insert:v To insert only the root members of the hierarchy, click Root members.v To insert all members of the hierarchy, click All members.Tip: The default Level Indentation property for all members is to show thehierarchical structure when the report is run.Chapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 323Insert a Member PropertyYou can insert member properties, which are attributes of a member, in yourreport. Member properties provides additional information about the member. Forexample, an employee level may have a property named gender.In the data tree of the Source tab , member properties are identified by theicon .You can only insert properties. You cannot group them.ProcedureFrom the Source tab , drag the member property to the report.Create a Set of MembersUse sets to group members that are logically related for various actions, such asformatting, nesting, and sorting. Creating sets is also useful when members may bedynamic over time. For example, the child accounts of a total assets account maychange from year to year. By creating a set, you do not have to modify the reporteach time accounts are added or removed.After you create a set of members, you can add or remove members within the set.You can perform operations on the set such as excluding specific members, movingmembers within the set, showing only the top or bottom members, filtering the set,and expanding or collapsing the members within a set. You can view the setdefinition to see and edit operations that are performed on the set.Procedure1. From the Source tab , click the create sets for members button totoggle between adding individual members and creating sets for members.2. From the Source tab, select the items to include in the set and drag them to thework area.3. to add or remove members from the set, right-click the set and click EditMembers.Tip: you can also select the set and, in the Properties pane, double-click theMembers property.Edit a SetAfter you create a set, you can view its definition to see, change, add, or deleteoperations, such as the following, that are performed on the set:v excluding a memberv moving members to the top or bottom of a setv applying a top or bottom filterv filtering the setv expanding or collapsing members in a setThe definition of a set shows you, in the graphical tree, the history of all theoperations that are performed on the set.324 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User Guide

You can see and change the order in which the operations are performed. Forexample, you apply a top three filter and then exclude one member. Your set nowcontains only two members. You can choose to exclude the member before the topthree filter so that your set still contains three members.Procedure1. Right-click a set and click Edit Set.A graphical tree shows all the operations that are performed on the set ofmembers.2. To see the details of an operation, hover your mouse over an operation node.3. To change the order of an operation, click the operation node, and click theright or left arrow.4. To edit an operation, click the operation node and click the edit button .5. To add a new operation, click the new button .Exclude Members from a SetYou can choose to remove individual items that are not needed in your analysis.Procedure1. Right-click the set and click Edit Set.2. Click the new button and click Exclude.3. In the Exclude box, choose the members to exclude and use the right arrow tomove them to the Members pane.Move Members Within a SetYou can move one or more members to the top or bottom of a set.Procedure1. Right-click the set and click Edit Set.2. Click the new button and click Move to Top or Move to Bottom.3. In the Available members list, select the member to move to the top or bottomand click the right arrow.The members appear in the order shown in the Members list.Limit Data to Top or Bottom ValuesYou want to focus your report on the items of greatest significance to yourbusiness question. For example, you want to identify your top 100 customers andwhat that group of customers is worth.You can limit the data to the top or bottom values of a set. This keeps the amountof data shown in the work area small, even when using large data sources.You can define a top or bottom rule by specifyingv a number, such as the 50 top or bottom performing sales peoplev a percentage, such as customers who contribute to the top 10% of overallrevenuev a cumulative sum, such as customers who contribute to the first ten milliondollars of overall revenueChapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 325If the selected set contains a user-defined filter, the top or bottom rule applies onlyto the included values. For example, if you apply a filter to show only retailerswith revenue greater than one million dollars, the bottom rule applies to the lowestvalues within those results.You can filter a set of members to show only those at the top or bottom and basethe filter on the measure you are using and the set of members on the oppositeedge. You can also specify a custom filter.Procedure1. Right-click the set and click Edit Set.2. Click the new button and click Top or Bottom.3. Under Type, select whether to filter the Top or Bottom values.4. To choose how and how much you want to filter, under Number of items, clickCount, Percent, or Sum and type the number of data items to show, the

percent of data items to show, or the value to sum.5. Choose the intersection on which to base your filter by clicking the ellipsis (...)button and selecting the members and measure for the intersection from eitherthe Source tab or the Calculated Members and Measures tab.For more information, see “Create an Intersection (Tuple)” on page 369.Filter the Members Within a SetYou can remove members from within a set by specifying filter conditions so thatonly the members that you require remain. You can filter a set based onv member captionsFor example, your set includes employee names and you want to keep only theemployees with names that begin with a specific letter.v properties that are numeric or stringsFor example, your set includes employee names and you want to filteremployees using the gender property.v intersection of values (tuple)For example, you want to keep only the employees who used less that ten sickdays for the year 2008.If you want to create a more complex filter, you can combine multiple conditionsusing AND, OR, and NOT operators. By default, multiple conditions are combinedwith an AND operator, which means that all conditions must be met for the filterto take effect.Filtering the members in a set is not the same as relation detail or summary filters.Procedure1. Right-click the set and click Edit Set.2. Click the new button and click Set Filter.3. Select how you want to filter.v If you want to filter the set using a caption, click Caption.v If you want to filter the set using a member property, click Property andselect from the drop-down list.v If you want to filter the set using an intersection of members, or tuple, clickIntersection (tuple) and click the ellipsis (...) button. Then, from Available326 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User Guidemembers and measures, select the desired items and click the right arrow tomove them to the Intersection members and measures list.4. Specify the Operator and Value to complete your condition and click OK.5. To add additional conditions, click the new button .6. If you include multiple conditions in your filter, use the AND, OR, and NOToperators to combine them.v To add an operator, select the conditions that you want to combine, and clickan operator.v To change an operator, double-click the operator to toggle among availableones or select the operator and then select a different one from the list.v To remove an operator, select it in the condition string, and then click thedelete button .7. To change a condition, click the edit button .Expand and Collapse a Member Within a SetYou can expand a member to add its child members below it as new rows, andyou can collapse expanded members to remove the expanded member's childmembers.Procedure1. Right-click the set and click Edit Set.2. Click the new button and click Expand or Collapse.3. In the Available members list, select the member to expand or collapse andclick the right arrow to move it to the Members list.

Extended Data ItemsExtended data items differ from the traditional, expression-based text strings byenabling you to add children, view details, select sets, sort sets, and applycontextual calculations.Note: Extended data items do not apply to relational packages ornon-dimensionally modeled packages.You can do the following with extended data items that are not available withtraditional data items:v Add an extended data item's child membersYou can double-click an extended data item to insert its child members beside itin the report object.v View an extended data item's detailsYou can select an extended data item and see where the data item appears in thepackage in the Properties pane under Data Item.v Select member setsYou can select a member in a set to highlight it as the primary selection and theother members as secondary selections.v Sort setsChapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 327You can select an extended data item, click the sort button , and clickAdvanced Set Sorting to sort a set in ascending or descending order, to sorthierarchically, and to sort by caption, by a property, or by an intersection (tuple).v Apply contextual calculationsYou can select an extended data item and then, from the Data menu, clickCalculate to see a contextual list of calculations that are available for thisextended data item.Extended data items are optional. If you use extended data items in a report, werecommend that you use them for the entire report instead of mixing them withexpression-based data items. For information about turning on extended dataitems, see “Specify Report Properties” on page 416.Note: In IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced, extended data items are always used.Therefore, if you are authoring a report in IBM Cognos Report Studio for reportconsumers who are working in Cognos Workspace Advanced, you should useextended data items.Tips for Working with Ragged or Unbalanced HierarchiesIn ragged or unbalanced hierarchies, some members that are not at the lowest levelof the hierarchy may have no descendants at one or more lower levels. Support forthese hierarchy gaps in relational data sources is limited. More complete support isprovided for OLAP data sources, but some reports may still result in unexpectedbehavior.For example, the following may occur:v Groups corresponding to missing members may appear or disappear whengrouped list reports are pivoted to a crosstab. This happens with set expressionsusing the filter function, and detail filters on members.v Ragged and unbalanced sections of the hierarchy are suppressed when setexpressions in that hierarchy are used on an edge.v When a crosstab is sectioned or is split into a master detail report, sectionscorresponding to missing members become empty.v Cells that were suppressed may still appear in the report output for reports withragged or unbalanced hierarchies.Some of these behaviors may be corrected in a future release, while others may becodified as supported behavior. To avoid these behaviors, do not use levels fromragged or unbalanced hierarchies. Instead of using levels, use the descendants,

children, or ancestors.We consider the following scenarios to be safe:v One or more nested level references on an edge with no modifying expression.v A hierarchy reference on only one level of one edge.v One or more explicit members or sets of explicit members as siblings on onlyone level of one edge.v Summaries of the previous three scenarios.In all cases, you should test reports based on ragged and unbalanced hierarchies toconfirm that hierarchy gaps are handled correctly.328 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User GuideFor more information about ragged or unbalanced hierarchies, see the IBM CognosFramework Manager User Guide.Related concepts:“Creating Sections on Reports That Access SAP BW Data Sources” on page 544SAP BW data sources may have problems with sections in reports under differentcircumstances:Creating dimensional custom groupsCreate custom groups to classify existing data items into groups that aremeaningful to you.You can reduce the number of values into smaller, more meaningful groups. Forexample, you can change a list of employees into my team and others.When working with dimensional data and crosstabs or charts, you can createcustom groups only on sets of members. After you create a custom group in a set,the members in the set are replaced by the custom groups.When you create custom groups in a list, a new column is added to the report,with the name data item (Custom). You can use this new column to group or sortthe report. If you want to show only the new groups, you can delete the originalcolumn.When creating custom groups on sets of members, consider the following:v Members included in a custom group must be from the same level in ahierarchy.v If you insert a hierarchy used in a custom group elsewhere in the data container,it must be inserted as a sibling of the custom group.v Automatic aggregation on a custom group might not work as expected. Forexample, you might encounter error cells (- -).Procedure1. To add custom groups in a crosstab or chart that includes sets of members, dothe following steps:a. Right-click a set and click Edit Set.b. Click the New icon and select Custom Grouping.c. In the Custom Grouping window, select the New Custom Group icon .d. Type a New group name.e. Select members from the Available members list and move them to theMembers list.2. To add custom groups to a list, do the following steps:a. Click the column that you want to group on and from the Data menu,select Calculate > Define Custom Groups.Tip: You can click either the column heading or one of the column cells.b. Click the New Group Entry icon .c. To group by values that you select, click New Select Values Group, type aNew Group Name, select the required values from the Values box, andmove the values to the Selected Values box.Chapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 329d. To group by a range of values, click New Range Group, type a New Group

Name, and enter the From and To values.3. If you do not want a group name to appear for remaining values, select Do notshow remaining values. Clicking this option will produce empty cells forremaining values.4. If you want the group name for remaining values to match each value, selectUse each remaining value as a group name.5. If you want to specify your own group name for all remaining values, selectGroup remaining values into a single group and type the name that youwant.6. If you are adding custom groups in a list, under New data item name, selecteither the default data item name or type a new data item name.Summarizing Data DimensionallySummarize data in your reports to obtain totals, averages, and so on.The summary options that you can use depend on the type of data source that youare using. If you are querying an OLAP data source, all measure values thatappear in reports are pre-summarized because the data source contains rolled upvalues. The type of summary that is used is specified in the data source itself. As aresult, we recommend that you use the Automatic summary when creatingdimensional style reports. This ensures that the report always uses the type ofsummary that the data modeler specified in the data source.For example, the modeler may have specified that the rollup for revenue is totaland the rollup for stock prices is average.If you use other types of summaries with dimensional style reports, you mayencounter unexpected results.You can also add summaries, which are supported for any data source. Summariesspecify how data items are totaled in the headers and footers of a list and in thetotal rows and columns of a crosstab. For list reports, these summaries onlysummarize the data that is visible on that page of the report.You can specify summary aggregation in different ways by using any of thefollowing:v aggregation properties that are specified in the modelv the Auto Group & Summarize propertyv the summarize button in the toolbarv aggregation properties for a data itemv the solve order of calculations330 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User GuideLimitationIf a summary is applied to a report that contains binary large object (BLOB) data,such as images or multimedia objects, you cannot also perform grouping orsorting.The Type of DataHow data is summarized also depends on the type of data that you aresummarizing. Summary rules are applied differently to facts, identifiers, andattributes. For example, if you summarize a data item that represents partnumbers, the only summary rules that apply are count, count distinct, countnon-zero, maximum, and minimum. For information about how to determine thetype of data that a data item represents, see “Add Relational Data to a Report” onpage 279 and “Add Dimensional Data to a Report” on page 319.For information about how null or missing values are handled in summaries, see“Null (Missing) Values in Calculations and Summaries” on page 606.Limitations on Measure RollupsFor all OLAP data sources except IBM Cognos PowerCube and Microsoft SQLServer 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS), aggregation and re-aggregation aresupported only for calculations and measures that use the following rollups: Sum

(Total), Maximum, Minimum, First, Last, and Count.All other types of rollup either fail or return error cells, which typically appear astwo dash characters (--).This problem occurs in, but is not limited to, the following:v footersv aggregate functionv context filters that select more than one member of a hierarchy that is usedelsewhere on the reportSummarizing SetsWhen working with Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) data sources,we recommend that you not summarize values for sets which contain membersthat are descendants of other members in the same set. If you do so, SSASdouble-counts values for automatic summaries and all data sources double-countsvalues for explicit summaries.Related concepts:“Limitations When Summarizing Measures in DMR Data Sources” on page 598There are limitations when summarizing dimensionally-modeled relational (DMR)measures and semi-additive measures in crosstabs using the aggregation functioncount distinct, median, standard-deviation, or variance. The followinglimitations can produce empty or error cells when the report is run:Add a Simple SummaryYou can add simple summaries in a report by using the summarize button .This button provides a subset of the summary functions available in IBM CognosReport Studio.Chapter 11. Dimensional Reporting Style 331The summarize button sets the rollup aggregate property for the data item to theselected summary, and places the data item into an appropriate footer. A footer iscreated for each set, hierarchy, or level.In crosstabs and charts, the summary appears as a node.In crosstabs, you can add multiple summaries at the same level. For example, youhave a crosstab with Product line as rows, Order year as columns, and Revenue asthe measure. For Product line, you can add the Total summary as a header, whichwill total all revenue for each order year. You can then add the Average summaryas a footer, which will give the average revenue of all product lines for each orderyear.For information about adding a rolling or moving average, see “Rolling andMoving Averages” on page 335.Procedure1. Click the item to which to add a summary.2. Click the summarize button and click a summary type.3. To change the summary label, do the following:v Click the label.v In the Properties pane, under Text Source, set the Source Type property tothe source type to define the label.For example, set it as Data Item Value to produce a dynamic label for thesummary based on data item values.v Set the property below Source Type to specify the label.This property depends on the source type you chose. For example, if youchose Data Item Value as the source type, set the Data Item Value propertyto the data item to use to define the label.4. To change a summary, select it and, in the Properties pane, under Data Item,click Aggregation Method and choose a different function.Summarizing Values in CrosstabsIn crosstabs, summaries are calculated using two summary expressions.

The expressions used to summarize data are:v aggregate ([measure within set [data item]) summarizes the member valuesfrom the data source within the current content.v aggregate ([measure within detail [data item]) summarizes the lowest level ofdetails in the report.The expression that is used to calculate a summary is controlled by the summary’sUse Set Aggregation property. For example, in the following crosstab, if youspecified Total as the summary, the following aggregate expressions are producedwhen the Use Set Aggregation is set to Yes and No respectively:332 IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10.2.0: User Guidev Total ([Revenue] within set [Quarter])This expression totals the quarter values from the data source at the intersectingproduct line. At the bottom right corner, it totals the aggregate over all productlines for each quarter.v Total ([Revenue] within detail [Quarter])This expression totals the month values visible in the report at the intersectingproduct line. At the bottom right corner, it totals all of the intersecting month -product line values visible in the report.In simple cases, the members and values visible in the report and the aggregaterules in the report are the same as those in the data source and all of theseexpressions produce the same results.For example, for the quarter and month values, if you are totaling the values forall months in all quarters, it makes no difference whether the visible values, thevalues in the cube, or the month and quarter values are used. The result is thesame.Tip: The Total Revenue by Country or Region sample report in the GO Data