Dynamic Multidimensional Graphs

  

 

 

Constrain Slice

The Constraint Slice command, or simply ‘Constraints’, is a powerful Slice function for use with a large, sparsely populated database. Constraints are very helpful for viewing Slices that contain row upon row, or column upon column, of data that is insignificant for your purposes, requiring you to scroll continually up or down through a Slice to find the data you are looking for  .

‘By using Constraints on the data—i.e., by ‘constraining’ it—you can eliminate from your on-screen view rows or columns that, for example, contain only zeros in a Slice. Or, you may designate constraints (via the Constraints dialog box, as you will see) on single Members or groups of Members that contain data to your specifications. For example, you could use Constraints to eliminate rows or columns that contain regions that report sales of less than 10 units (thus, only regions reporting greater than 10 units would appear in the Slice view).

 

To Constrain a slice do as follows:

1.   Open a slice (E.g., Canada Year Sales).

2.   Press F9 to refresh values.

3.   Go to the PowerOLAP ribbon, Slice tab and then select the Constrain Slice command from the Options control group. The Edit Constraints dialog appears.

4.   Create your constraint rule.
For example, say you only want to view data for months  that yielded a Gross Profit of more than 100 (this is n example of a row constraint), you can define your constraint rule as follows:

Note: You can make use of the different butons, checkbox options and operators in this dialog to help you in defining your constraint rule.

5.   Click on the Check button to make sure that there are no syntax errors.

6.   Click OK to close the dialog. This will return you to the slice view.

7.   Press F9 to refresh slice data.

Notice that it now only brings back data for months that satisfies the constraint that you have set. The Slice appears below, with members March, April, June, July, September, October, November and December eliminated from the grid.

The following elements of the Edit Constraints dialog box aid in constructing a constraint expression:

EDIT CONSTRAINTS DIALOG

Command

Description

Hide Empty Row/Column

Eliminates all rows/columns that have null or zero values.

PICK button

Accesses the ‘Pick Member’ dialog box.

You can select one or more members from the Row or Column dimensions to edit Constraints.

OK button

Exits the ‘Edit Constraints’ dialog when the constraint equation has been completed.

Operators

These math and logical operators may be used to write a Constraint equation.

CHECK button

Checks the syntax accuracy of the constraint text.

Row
Constraint box

This box is where the row constraint text is written.

Column Constraint box

This box is where the column constraint text is written.

 

 Notes

Advanced Constraints Grammar can be found in the Advanced Reference Materials section of this manual.