Chapter 8. Advanced Analysis and Reporting

In this last chapter, you'll look at some advanced features of Oracle Discoverer, which you may need to answer typical business questions. The chapter begins with a discussion on how to use Discoverer parameters, workbook items that allow you to enter dynamic input values for analysis purposes. Then it proceeds to conditional formatting, explaining how you can choose what data to display on worksheets with the help of conditional formats. Finally, the chapter shows you how to make worksheet data easier to analyze with sorting.

Listed as short bullets, here are the main topics discussed in this chapter:

• Customizing worksheets to match your needs

• Analyzing worksheet data using dynamic input values

• Filtering worksheet data using conditions

• Sorting data on a worksheet

Using parameters in Discoverer

You can assign parameters to a workbook to be able then to analyze worksheet data using dynamic input values. In Chapter 4, Analyzing Data and Creating Reports...

Using parameters in Discoverer

You can assign parameters to a workbook to be able then to analyze worksheet data using dynamic input values. In Chapter 4, Analyzing Data and Creating Reports, you already saw how you might take advantage of parameters, exploring an example of selecting a region's data by dynamic input. The following sections provide a more detailed look at Discoverer parameters, explaining them by example.

Analyzing worksheets by entering dynamic input values

As mentioned, the idea behind parameters is that you can enter dynamic input values to analyze worksheet data. The most common use of parameters is to allow users to specify values for filters. Going back to our example, suppose you want to analyze monthly data, displaying it for a certain month on the worksheet. The following steps will walk you through the process of creating a month parameter:

1. 1. In the Discoverer Plus menu, choose Tools | Parameters… to launch the Edit Worksheet dialog at the Parameters tab.

2. 2. On...

Conditional formatting

When you deal with a lot of data on your worksheet, it's always a good idea to highlight some data to make the entire worksheet more readable. For example, you might want to highlight all the items on the worksheet whose values are greater than 500. The following steps illustrate how you might do that:

1. 1. Select the worksheet cells you want to format and then right-click on the selection:

1. 2. In the pop-up menu, select Conditional Formats… to open the Conditional Formats dialog:

1. 3. In the Conditional Formats dialog, click the New Conditional Format… button to open the New Conditional Format dialog.

2. 4. In the New Conditional Format dialog, select:

   • Total SUM as the item;

   • >= as the condition;

   Then, enter 500 in the far right Value drop-down list, so that the dialog looks like the one shown next:

   Click OK to create the conditional format and return to the Conditional Formats dialog.

3. 5. In the Conditional Formats dialog, click OK to close it.

Once you've completed the...

Making data easier to analyze with sorting

Sometimes you may want to change the order in which the worksheet data is sorted. In Discoverer, this can be easily done with the sorting feature. Turning back to our example, suppose you want to sort the days' figures within January from low to high. The following steps will tell you how you might do it:

1. 1. On the worksheet and right-click the Day item located at the top axis.

2. 2. In the pop-up menu, select Sort High to Low:

   As a result, the data on the worksheet will be rearranged as follows:

Summary

In this chapter, you looked at some advanced features you can employ as a Discoverer user. In particular, you learned about parameters, conditional formatting, and sorting. As you might guess, the examples provided in the chapter were simple, just to give you a look at what is available.