Inserting Items

You insert items from the source tree as rows and columns in a crosstab to create sets for analysis. A set is a collection of like data. For example, you can have a set of data named years that includes quarters as details.

Get Data Later

From the Settings menu, you can click Get Data Later to quickly create crosstab views that use complex filters and sets without executing a full query to the data source.

Note: When working with Get Data Later applied, you cannot switch to a chart without first retrieving data. The Chart and Crosstab and Chart options from the View menu are unavailable.

If you are interested in only the summarized results, you can insert items without details.

You can also simultaneously insert all the items of a level, insert adjacent sets, or insert items from different levels of the same dimension.

Other techniques for inserting items are nesting items and replacing items.

For information about different crosstab layouts that you can use, see Crosstab layouts.

You cannot drag folders from the source tree.

If the crosstab contains fixed width columns, labels that exceed the fixed width are truncated and ellipses are shown. You can pause the pointer over the truncated cells to see a tool tip that shows the full information.

Note:

When using an IBM® Cognos® PowerCube as a data source, mixed currency values use the asterisk character (*) as the unit of measure. Mixed currency values occur when you calculate values with different currencies.
When you insert items from a relational data source containing sparse data, you may see data in the analysis appear and disappear unexpectedly. For example, a crosstab may contain 10 members along the rows and 10 members along the columns. When you add a member from another dimension to the context area, some members may disappear along the row or column because they are not in scope for that particular context. For more information, see the IBM Cognos Framework Manager User Guide.
This can also occur when using SAP BW data sources.

Tip:

You can resize the columns in an open analysis by dragging on the resize icon .
You can insert items as a selection-based set by pressing Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select multiple items in a dimension and then dragging them to the crosstab.