Tip or Technique

Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs

Product(s): IBM Cognos 8 Area of Interest: Report Design

Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs

Copyright Copyright 2008 Cognos ULC (formerly Cognos Incorporated). Cognos ULC is an IBM Company. While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. Cognos does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. This document shows the publication date. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Any improvements or changes to the information contained in this document will be documented in subsequent editions. This document contains proprietary information of Cognos. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, or translated into another language without the prior written consent of Cognos. Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks of Cognos ULC (formerly Cognos Incorporated) in the United States and/or other countries. IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, or other countries, or both. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Information about Cognos products can be found at www.cognos.com This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology team. You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to cscogpp@ca.ibm.com .

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs

Contents
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2 3 3.1 3.2 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 4 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................4 APPLICABILITY .....................................................................................................4 EXCLUSIONS AND EXCEPTIONS ..................................................................................4 REPORT REQUIREMENTS.............................................................................. 4 LAYOUT AND DESIGN ................................................................................... 5 LIST REPORT .......................................................................................................5 CROSS TAB REPORT ...............................................................................................8

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs

1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose This document will show step-by-step how to create list and crosstab reports in Report Studio that contain multiple aligned header rows to group column information together and display additional information about the items displayed in the report. Applicability The following examples were built using IBM Cognos 8.1 MR2 Report Studio against the GO Sales and Retailers package. The list report technique can be applied to Report Studio reports created in ReportNet as well as in IBM Cognos 8. The crosstab technique has been available since the introduction of the Crosstab Space (with Text) insertable toolbox object in IBM Cognos 8 MR1. Exclusions and Exceptions These techniques should work with Relational, Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR), and OLAP data sources. However, they have not been explicitly tested in these scenarios.

1.2

1.3

2 Report Requirements
Often the metadata available from a data source does not provide some of the grouping information necessary for quick evaluation by consumers. While the information can be added to a report, there are some techniques which are less ideal than others. The best approach is to incorporate layout elements without adding to the query overhead. The issue with list reports is that the existing column titles does not allow for additional rows to be added. The techniques described below will allow a report author to add header items such as Product Per Unit and Product Sales to list reports as in the following:

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs A similar technique will be presented for crosstabs to incorporate elements into the crosstab structure such as Order Method Quantity and Product Sales as in the crosstab image below:

3 Layout and Design

3.1 List Report Open Report Studio using the GO Sales and Retailers sample package and create a new list report. Drag in right: the following columns into the list in the order below from left to [gosales_goretailers].[Products].[Product line] [gosales_goretailers].[Products].[Product type] [gosales_goretailers].[Products].[Product name] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Unit cost] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Unit price] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Unit sale price] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Quantity] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Revenue] [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Gross profit]

Group the [Product line] and [Product type] columns.

Click on the List Headers & Footers icon List page header.

in the toolbar and turn on the

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs

Unlock the report layout and remove the List Page Header text item found in the List Page Header row.

With the List Page Header row selected (see above image), change the Class property to List column title cell. With the List Page Header row selected (see above image), select Insert List Row Cells Above from the Structure menu. Accept the default of 1 and click OK. With the List Page Header row still selected (see above image), select Split List Row Cell from the Structure menu.

Select all of the cells in the newly created List Page Header row and change the Class property to Global Class List column title cell.

With the report specification unlocked, drag each of the text items from the original Column Title row to the bottom of the two List Page Header rows in the same column.

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs Select anywhere in the List object and using the properties pane hierarchy drop-down list, select the overall list. Change the Column Titles property to Hide.

Multi-select the left three cells in the first List Page Header row (see above) and change the Class property to None.

Multi-select the next three cells in the first List Page Header row (see above) and select Merge List Row Cells from the Structure menu. Multi-select the last three cells in the first List Page Header row and select Merge List Row Cells from the Structure menu.

Add a text item for the Product Per Unit header in the first merged cell and a text item in the second merged cell for the Product Sales header in the second merged cell.

The report is complete and the output appears as in the introductory list example:

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs Using this technique any number of aligned column header rows can be added to a list report. 3.2

Crosstab Report Open Report Studio using the GO Sales and Retailers sample package and create a new crosstab report. (If you are reusing your previous Report Studio session from the List example above then ensure that you lock the layout to perform the initial crosstab creation steps.) Create the crosstab layout by dragging the following model items to the indicated locations: Rows: [gosales_goretailers].[Products].[Product name] Measures: [gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Quantity] Drag a Crosstab Space (with Text) object from the Toolbox onto the Column edge. The result will look like the following.

Drag a second Crosstab Space (with Text) object from the Toolbox onto the Column edge directly to the right of the first Crosstab Space (with Text) object. (Without defined text, the layout with two crosstab space objects will look the same as the layout with only one crosstab space.)

Edit the text of the first column to read Order Method Quantity and then set the second column to read Product Sales.

Drag Order method under the Order Method Quantity column as shown below.

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Multiple Aligned Column Headers in Lists and Crosstabs Drag Revenue under the Product Sales column as shown below.

Drag Gross Profit under the Product Sales column, along side Revenue as shown below.

The completed crosstab report that will look like this:

The output of this report reproduces the sample shown in the introduction:

This method adds additional structure to a crosstab layout without incurring any query processing overhead by including unnecessary data items into the query itself.

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