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Accessing Data and Data Analysis
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Building a more powerful query
Building a more powerful query
You build a simple query by adding objects to the Query Panel. The procedures
described in the following sections enable you to build a more powerful query by
controlling the data that your queries retrieve. You can:
• define scope of analysis, which means that you retrieve data that you will later
use for analysis in the report
• limit the query results to data that satisfies conditions
• sort data, for example alphabetically
• retrieve a specified number of rows of data
• eliminate duplicate rows of data from the query result
NOTE
All the above tasks are easy to perform for non-technical end users. In
"Customizing Queries on Universes" on page 329, you can find information on
more powerful query building procedures that are designed for advanced users.
Defining scope of analysis
Analysis means looking at data from different viewpoints and on different levels
of detail. In reports, you can use scope of analysis to ensure that the data
included in your report can be displayed at the appropriate level of detail for your
analysis. Setting a scope of analysis allows you to work in drill mode, which
enables you to display data in progressively greater detail.
“Scope of analysis” means a subset of data, returned by a query, that you will use
for analysis in your report. The data for your scope of analysis does not appear
in the report until you decide that you want to use it in analysis
The scope of analysis you can define depends on hierarchies in the universe. A
hierarchy, which the designer sets up when creating the universe, consists of
dimension objects ranked from “less detailed” to “more detailed”. The objects that
belong to hierarchies are the ones you can use to define scope of analysis.
To view the hierarchies in the universe you are working with, click the Scope of
Analysis button on the Query Panel toolbar. The Scope of Analysis dialog box
appears:
Scope of
Analysis