WebFOCUS Online Help > Managed Reporting End User > Creating a Report With Report Assistant > Field Selection Tab

Field Selection Tab

Reference:

The Field selection tab is used to select fields for a report.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Available Fields Window

The following image shows the Available Fields window on the Field selection tab. The fields are sorted by the Name column with corresponding columns containing their Alias, Format, and Segment information.

Available Fields window

Displays a list of field names from the selected data source.

Define icon

Click the Define (calculator) icon to select: New define field, Edit define field, or Delete define field. If you select the New define field or Edit define field, the Define Field Creator dialog box opens where you can create or edit a defined field.

Tree icon

Displays a tree structure of field names by segment with segment, alias, title, description, and format information below the tree. Individual field information appears when you click on the field.

List icon

Displays a list of all field names with information that you select from the adjacent arrow that opens a list box: name, alias, title, format, description, segment, and file name. You can also choose to sort by file order.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Report Fields Window

The following image shows the Report fields section on the Field selection tab. You can view the selected fields with the following options:

Selected field display options

Lists the following field display options:

Prefix with the Segment Name

Prefixes the field name with the segment name.

Prefix with the Filename

Prefixes the field name with the name of the data source.

Show the field's alias instead of name

Uses the alias defined in the Master File as the field name.

Show field's title

Uses the title in the Master File instead of the field name.

Show field's description

Uses the description in the Master File instead of the field name.

Add grand totals

The Add grand totals drop-down list provides two options. The Totals option displays the totals for each column. The Recompute Totals option recalculates computed fields before displaying the totals for each column.

Add a row total column

Displays the total for each row.

Sort By

Lists the vertical field that you have selected from the Available Fields window.

Add icon

Adds a field to the Sort By window.

Remove icon

Removes a field from the Sort By window.

Move Up or Move Down icons

Moves the position of the field within the report.

Sort Across

Lists the horizontal field you have selected from the Available Fields window.

Add icon

Adds a field to the Sort Across window.

Remove icon

Removes a field from the Sort Across window.

Move Up or Move Down icons

Moves the position of the field within the report.

Sum

Indicates a report that aggregates data by the horizontal field.

Print

Prints each value on a record-by-record basis.

New Computed Field icon

Opens the Computed Field Creator dialog box where you can define the parameters for a new computed field. For more information on the Field Creator dialog box, see Field Selection Tab: Field Creator Dialog Box.

Add icon

Adds a field to the report fields.

Remove icon

Removes a field from the report fields.

Move Up or Move Down icons

Moves the position of the field within the report.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Field List Searching

The following image shows the Field List Searching options that you can use to search for a field in the Fields List. For more details, see Searching Field Lists.

Pattern Search

Select the Master File attribute for which you want to search. The following table lists the pattern attributes and a description of each.

Attribute

Description

Name

Name of the field.

Alias

Alias for the field.

Title

Display title for the field, as defined in the Master File.

Format

Field format, for example A4.

Description

Field description, as defined in the Master File.

Segment

A segment of fields in the Master File.

Filename

Name of the data source.

Text Box

Type your search string. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. For example, type c* to find all fields that begin with the letter "c". The character string is not case sensitive.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Available Objects

The following image shows the Available Objects that you can include in your report from the Field selection tab. For more details, see Using Application Objects.

Name

Is the name of the application object.

Type

Is the type of application object. For example, if the Type is BY it is a vertical sort field.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Show Report Field Options for Sort By

The following image shows the Show report field options where you choose various styles and functions for a selected field.

The Display subtab for a Sort by field has these options:

Make this field invisible

Check to hide the display of a Sort By field.

Font button

Opens the font styling dialog box. See Font Dialog Box.

Conditional Styling button

Opens the conditional styling dialog box where you use to add conditional styling in a report.

Drill Down button

Opens the drill-down dialog box. See Drill Down Dialog Box.

Format in report as

Is grayed out and unavailable.

Calculated as

Is grayed out and unavailable.

Include missing instances

Inserts '.' when no field value exists.

The Title subtab for a Sort by field has this option:

Title

Is the name of the field in the Sort By list box.

The Sorting subtab shown in the following image for a Sort by field has these options:

Ascending

Click to arrange fields in ascending order.

Descending

Click to arrange fields in descending order.

Total

Applies aggregation and sorting simultaneously to numeric columns in your report in one pass of the data. See Aggregating and Sorting Fields.

On vertical sort value change (By)

Select:

  • Create a page break (on value change).
  • Separate (from next) with underline.
  • Subtotal numeric sum/print fields.

Note:

The Ranking subtab, shown in the following image for a Sort by field has these options:

Add Ranking column

This check box is unselected by default and enables a user to add a Ranking column.

Limit the number of ranked values to

This check box is grayed out by default and activated only if the Add Ranking column check box is selected. It enables a user to enter an integer value to select the number of ranked values to display in the report (5 is the default value).

Text Box

The title of the ranking column can be changed from the default of RANK.

Font button

Opens the font styling dialog box. See Font Dialog Box.

The Subhead/Subfoot subtab, shown in the following image for a Sort by field has these options:

Formatting toolbar

Specify the font, font size, font style, text alignment, text color, and background color of the subhead or subfoot.

Text box

Enter a subhead/subfoot in the text box.

The Subtotal subtab for a Sort by field has:

Text box

Enter text to display for the subtotal.

Note: This sub tab appears when you select the Subtotal numeric sum/print fields option on the Sorting sub tab.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Show Report Field Options for Sort Across

The following image shows the Show report field options where you choose various styles and functions for a selected field.

The Display subtab for a Sort across field has these options:

Make this field invisible

Check to hide the display of a Sort Across field.

Font button

Opens the font styling dialog box. See Font Dialog Box.

Conditional Styling button

Is grayed out and unavailable.

Drill Down button

Opens the drill-down dialog box. See Drill Down Dialog Box.

Format in report as

Is grayed out and unavailable.

Calculated as

Is grayed out and unavailable.

Include missing instances

Is grayed out and unavailable.

The Title subtab for a Sort across field has this option:

Title

Is the name of the field in the Sort Across list box.

The Sorting subtab for a Sort across field has these options:

Ascending

Click to arrange fields in ascending order.

Descending

Click to arrange fields in descending order.

Note: Other options are grayed out and unavailable.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Show Report Field Options for Column

The following image shows the Show report field options where you choose various styles and functions for a selected field.

The Display subtab for a Column field has these options:

Make this field invisible

Check to temporarily hide the display of a Column field.

Font button

Opens the font styling dialog box. See Font Dialog Box.

Conditional Styling button

Opens the conditional styling dialog box where you use to add conditional styling in a report.

Drill Down button

Opens the drill-down dialog box. See Drill Down Dialog Box.

Format in report as

Click ... to open the change format dialog where you can edit the field format. See Change Format Dialog Box.

Calculated as

Make a selection from the drop-down list.

Include missing instances

Inserts '.' when no field value exists.

The Title subtab for a Column field has this option:

Title

Is the name of the field in the Columns list box.


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Reference: Drill Down Dialog Box

The following image shows the drill down dialog box, where you can add drill down capability to a report.

Execute procedure (FOCEXEC)

Lists the domains and procedures that are available as drill-down reports. Click the procedure you want to execute.

Show all domains

When Execute procedure (FOCEXEC) is selected, click this check box to gain access to procedures in the Standard Reports folders of all available domains.

No action

Is the default.

Execute procedure

The procedure you selected appears in this text box.

Execute URL

Enter the URL of a Web page that will open when a user drills down.

With parameters

Once a parameter is created using the Add button, it is automatically added to this area.

Alternate comment for hyperlink

You can place comments here.

Add button

Opens the drill-down parameter dialog shown in the following image.

Parameter name

Enter the parameter name you created in the drill down procedure.

Parameter value: Field

Select the field the user can drill down.

Parameter value: Constant value

The parameter is set to the specified value.

OK button

Returns to the drill down dialog. The parameter is added to the With parameters list box.


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Reference: Font Dialog Box

The following images shows the font dialog box.

Font

Select from the list box.

Style

Select from normal or bold, italic, underline, and various combinations.

Size

Select a font size from the list box.

Set Style for Title & Data, Title only, or Data only option buttons

Set the style for Title & Data, Title only, or Data only.

Text color

Select a color from the color palette.

Background color

Select a color from the color palette.

Justification

Select left, right, or center from the list box.

Apply these styling conditions to all report fields check box

Apply these styling conditions to all report fields.


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Reference: Field Selection Tab: Field Creator Dialog Box

Use the Field Creator dialog box to create or edit temporary fields, as shown in the following image.

Field

Enter a name for the temporary field. Note that field names cannot exceed 66 characters.

Format button

Displays the Change Format dialog box where you can modify the data formats. See Change Format Dialog Box.

Tree or List mode buttons

Opens the field list in either tree or list mode.

Functions button

Displays a list of predefined functions grouped into categories that include Character, Data Source and Decoding, Date and Time, Format Conversion, Numeric, and System. If you hover your cursor over a function, a brief description appears. The following image shows the list of predefined functions that populate the Field Creator dialog box when you select the Functions button.

Double-click the desired function to add it to the expression box in the Field Creator dialog box. In the expression box, replace each of the function’s arguments with the desired value or field name. Note that each of the available functions is a program that returns a value. For more information about functions, see the Using Functions manual.

Expression box

To create an expression, double-click fields or functions, select items (operators, numbers, characters) from the Field Creator keypad, or type directly in the expression box.

Concatenation operators

Concatenates two or more alphanumeric constants and/or fields into a single character string. The concatenation operator has two forms: | (weak concatenation, which preserves trailing blanks) and || (strong concatenation, which moves trailing blanks to the end of a concatenated string).

IF... THEN... ELSE... operators

Creates a conditional expression. A conditional expression assigns a value based on the result of a logical expression. The assigned value can be numeric or alphanumeric. IF, THEN, ELSE logic expressions take this form:

IF expression1 THEN expression2  ELSE expression3

ELSE is an optional operator. All alphanumeric values in conditional expressions must be enclosed in single quotation marks. For example, IF REGION EQ 'West'.

Logical operators

Used to create relational and Boolean expressions. A relational expression returns a value based on a comparison of two individual values (either field values or constants) and a Boolean expression returns a value based on the outcome of two or more relational expressions.

The following logical operators are available:

  • adds the less than (LT) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is less than the value on the right.
  • adds the greater than (GT) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is greater than the value on the right.
  • adds the less than or equal to (LE) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is less than or equal to the value on the right.
  • adds the greater than or equal to (GE) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is greater than or equal to the value on the right.
  • adds the equal (EQ) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is equal to the value on the right.
  • adds the not equal to (NE) operator to the expression. This operator returns a value if the value on the left is not equal to the value on the right.
  • AND returns a value if both operands are true.
  • OR returns a value if either operand is true.
  • NOT returns a value if the operand is false.
Arithmetic operators

Click any of the arithmetic operators to use them in your expression: + (addition), - (subtraction), * (multiplication), / (division), ** (exponentiation).

Two operators cannot appear consecutively. The following expression is invalid:

a* -1

To make it valid, you must add parentheses:

a* (-1)

Parentheses

Adds parentheses to the expression box. Parentheses affect the order in which the specified operations are performed. For information on when to use parentheses, see Order of Evaluation for Expressions.

Quotation marks

Adds quotation marks to the expression box. Use single quotation marks to enclose alphanumeric and date literals.

Uppercase (U key)

Converts entries in the expression box to uppercase. Note that field names are case-sensitive.


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Reference: Order of Evaluation for Expressions

WebFOCUS performs numeric operations in the following order:

  1. Parentheses
  2. Exponentiation
  3. Division and multiplication
  4. Addition and subtraction

When operators are at the same level, they are evaluated from left to right. Because expressions in parentheses are evaluated before any other expression, you can use parentheses to change this predefined order. For example, the following expressions yield different results because of parentheses:

COMPUTE PROFIT/D12.2 = RETAIL_PRICE - UNIT_COST * UNIT_SOLD ;
COMPUTE PROFIT/D12.2 = (RETAIL_PRICE - UNIT_COST) * UNIT_SOLD ;

In the first expression, UNIT_SOLD is first multiplied by UNIT_COST, and the result is subtracted from RETAIL_PRICE. In the second expression, UNIT_COST is first subtracted from RETAIL_PRICE, and that result is multiplied by UNIT_SOLD.gives an incorrect result because UNIT_SOLD is first multiplied by UNIT_COST, and then the result is subtracted from RETAIL_PRICE.


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Reference: Change Format Dialog Box

The following image shows the Change Format dialog box.

Format types

Choose:

  • Alphanumeric
  • Floating point
  • Integer
  • Decimal
  • Packed
  • Date
  • Date-Time
Length

Choose an available number based on the format type you chose.

Select options

Choose options based on the format type you chose.


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