Viewing: Working with the Ad Hoc Editor > Using Fields in Crosstabs

Working with Standard Crosstabs

 

This section describes crosstabs based on Topics and Domains. For information about crosstabs based on OLAP connections, refer to Working with OLAP Connection-based Crosstabs and Creating Topics.

Crosstabs have different data, layout, and format options than tables or charts.

If you selected Crosstab when you created a View, as described in section Ad Hoc Report Types, the following sections explain tasks specific to your crosstab development.

Using Fields in Crosstabs

Fields can be added to crosstabs as row groups or column groups. Measures can be added to crosstab rows or columns as well, but all measures must be included in a crosstab as either a row or a column -- that is, you can add one or more measures to the crosstab as columns, or add one or more measures to the crosstab as rows, but you cannot have one measure as a column and another as a row in the same crosstab.

Crosstab Rows and Columns

When creating a View for a crosstab-type report, keep in mind that row and column groups are arranged in hierarchies. Drag the group headings to rearrange the hierarchy; you can also right-click a heading and select a Move option from the context menu or press the cursor keys. Rearranging the groups may change the preview data in the editor.

To add a field or measure to a crosstab group:

1.     In the Data Selection panel, click to select the field you want to add to the crosstab as a group. Use Ctrl-click to select multiple items.

2.     Drag the selected item into the Columns or Rows box in the Layout Band.

Crosstab Measures

Measure labels are displayed in the crosstab based on their status as a row or column:

   Measures included as rows appear in the crosstab below the Measures heading.

   Measures included as columns appear in the crosstab to the right of the Measures heading.

Right-click a measure to perform any of the following tasks:

You can right-click a measure in the crosstab to open a context menu that provides these options:

   Change Summary Function

   Change Data Format

   Remove From Crosstab

   Create Filter

   Move Up or Move Down

Measures are arranged in cells. You can add any number of measures. All the measures appear together in every cell. To rearrange the measures, drag them in the measure label area.

Pivoting

You can pivot a crosstab in two ways:

   Pivot the entire crosstab by clicking . The row and column groups switch places. For more information, see section Creating a View from a Domain.

   Pivot a single group:

    To pivot a single row group, right-click it and select Switch To Column Group.

    To pivot a single column group, right-click it and select Switch To Row Group.

Slicing

The slice feature lets you keep or exclude group members in a crosstab. To slice, right-click a group member and select:

   Keep Only to remove all groups except the selected one from the crosstab.

   Exclude to remove this group from the crosstab.

Use Ctrl-click and Shift-click to select multiple groups to keep or exclude.

 

You can select multiple row groups or multiple column groups; you can't slice by both row groups and column groups at once. Compare slice to drill-through, drill to details, and filtering.

For more information about filtering, see section Using Filters and Input Controls.

Summarizing

All row and column groups are summarized automatically:

   To turn off a group summary, right-click any heading in the group and select Delete Row Summary or Delete Column Summary from the context menu. To reapply the summary, right-click the heading and select Add Row Summary or Add Column Summary.

 

The Delete Summary option is available only for the outermost group on either axis (that is, either the outermost row group or the outermost column group)

   To select the summary function and data format for a measure, right-click the measure label and select from the context menu. Note that you can’t change the summary function on custom fields that calculate percents (Percent of Total, Percent of Column Group Parent, and Percent of Row Group Parent).

   The summary functions for numeric fields are Sum, Average, Maximum, Minimum, Distinct Count, and Count All. Distinct Count is the number of different items in the row or column; Count All is the total number of items. For instance, if there are 3 widgets of type A and 3 widgets of type B, Distinct Count is 2 and Count All is 6.

Collapsing and Expanding Members

By default, the editor displays each row and column group of a crosstab in a collapsed state. This means that you can see the totals for the group, but not the measures for its individual members. To see measures for a group’s members, right-click the group label and select Expand Members.

When a group’s members are expanded, select Collapse Members from the same menu to hide the measures. Collapsing an outer group also collapses its inner groups. The Expand Members and Collapse Members options are only available for outermost groups, or for inner groups nested in an expanded outer group.

When you collapse a group, its summary is automatically displayed; this prevents invalid crosstab layouts in which there is nothing to display for some totals if the summary has been deleted previously.

Sorting

By default, the rows and columns of a crosstab are sorted in alphabetical order of the group names. Click the sorting icon beside any measure to cycle through the sort options:

    Alphabetical order (A to Z) of the column and row group labels; this is the default sort order.

    Numeric ascending order (smallest to greatest) of the column and row group summary values.

    Numeric descending order (greatest to smallest) of the column and row group summary values.

When the crosstab includes more than one row group or more than one column group, the inner groups are also sorted according to your selection. Only one measure can be used for sorting at any one time; changing the sort order for another measure resets all others to the default.

Resizing and Layout

Many of the layout and formatting options that are set manually in tables are set automatically in crosstabs. In particular, row and column sizes are fixed and no spacer is available.

Drilling Through Data

Drill-through functionality is available for crosstab data. A drill-through table displays the supporting details for the selected roll-up value.

To view the drill-through table for a value in your crosstab:

   Click hyperlinked data to display additional columns from that specific fact data.

By default, the drill-through table opens in its own window or tab, depending on your browser settings.