Click or drag to add measure - any difference?
Hi all, when i tick a measure Pyramid will add it to in this case a table - adding it to both the Values card, and the Columns card, the column it creates is also named with the Measure name.
If instead i drag the measure onto the Values card or the main canvas the measure is still added but only appears in the Values card, not the Columns card. Also the column is named "All".
At the moment in this simple table the result is the same technically but is there a difference in effect somewhere which means the two approaches should be used carefully?
I've looked at https://help.pyramidanalytics.com/Content/Root/MainClient/apps/Discover/Build%20Discover%20Content.htm?tocpath=Client%20Help%7CFull%20Client%7CDiscover%7CData%20Discovery%20Overview%7CBuild%20Queries%20in%20Discover%7C_____0 which mentions various ways to add items but they all appear to have the same effect.
Many thanks!
1 reply
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Hi Adam,
The Values drop zone lists all the Measures that are taking part in the query. The orange Values Chip represents all the Measures in the Values Drop Zone. This may be placed into the Rows and Columns Drop Zones, depending on where you want the Measures to be located. I can drag and drop the Values Chip and all the Measures will follow into that Zone and be identified in the grid with Column or Row titles, Sales, Margin etc.
When you click the check box for one Measure, you are effectively creating in the grid a flat Table, much like your tables in a relational database. For this reason, we want to identify the column concerned as the Measure you selected, so the Values Chip gets placed in the Columns Drop Zone and the Measure name the appears at the top of the column. If you remove the Values Chip from the Column Drop Zone, then the Measure name is replaced with the word "All". The same behaviour you see if you drag a Measure into the Values Drop Zone instead of selecting its checkbox. This seems a bit odd until you realise that this is a special case of a more general scenario.
When you build a grid and select a Measure, if there are no other attributes in the Columns, the Values Chip is placed there automatically. This has the effect of creating a column with a header of the Measure name.
If you build a matrix grid with Countries on Rows and Product Categories on columns, then check the Sales check box, because the Columns are now Product Categories, the Values Chip is not placed in the Columns Drop Zone as the Measure name would be redundant. However, you'll see that if you check another Measure, let's say Margin, you'll now have two columns under every Product Category. Now i need to differentiate between my Measures, so the Values Chip appears in the Columns Drop Zone and you get Sales and Margin as column headers under each Product Category.
Similarly, if you remove Product Category From Columns, I'm left with Sales and Margin as columns so therefore the Values Chip remains in Columns. If I remove the Values Chip from Columns, I can no longer differentiate between my Measures, so Pyramid will remove Measures until there is only one (the first one selected) and now there is nothing in the Columns Drop Zone, but I still have a column of data. In this instance Pyramid will provide a default "All" column header.
An example of where I have no Values Chip in the Column or Row Drop Zones would be a crosstab style grid with only one measure. In this case having the Measure name repeated for every Column or row would be redundant and look awful.
I hope that explains things a bit. LMK if you have any further questions.
Ian