MicroStrategy ONE

Creating custom group qualifications

A custom group is made up of a collection of components called custom group elements. Each element contains a set of filtering and banding qualifications. Qualifications are the actual conditions that must be met for data to be included in the custom group element. Examples include "Region = Northeast" or "Revenue > $1 million". Banding qualifications slice data into ranges based on metric values, such as the top 25 and bottom 25 stores in terms of revenue. Multiple qualifications are combined with operators such as AND and OR.

Qualifications in custom groups are the same as qualifications in filters, with the exception of banding qualifications, which are available in custom groups only.

Types of qualifications

You can create the following types of qualifications:

  • Attribute qualifications allow you to filter on an attribute's form (ID, description, and so on) or on elements of the attribute. An example of an attribute form qualification is a filter on the attribute form Customer Last Name for last names that start with the letter H. An attribute element list qualification on the Customer attribute consists of a list of customers. For more information, and more kinds of attribute qualifications, see Creating custom group attribute qualifications.

  • Set qualifications allow you to create a set of attributes based on either the metrics associated with those attributes (a metric qualification) or the relationships between them (a relationship qualification). For example, a metric qualification allows a report to display the sales data for only those products with inventory level below a specified value. A relationship qualification can be used to create a report that displays all the stores selling Nike shoes in the Washington, DC area. For more information, see Creating custom group metric qualifications and Creating custom group relationship qualifications.

  • Shortcut-to-a-report qualifications, also known as report qualifications or reports as filters, use the dataset of a report as a qualification. For more information, see Creating custom group shortcut-to-a-report qualifications.

  • Shortcut-to-a-filter qualifications, also known as filter qualifications or embedded filters, use an existing filter, either as is or with additional conditions, as the qualification. For more information, see Creating custom group shortcut-to-a-filter qualifications.

  • Banding qualifications slice data into multiple ranges, or bands, based on metric values. Each band appears on a separate row on the report. For example, you can slice items into four bands based on the Revenue metric. The bands indicate the best-selling products (the top 25%), the next-best-selling items, and so on. For more information, see Creating custom group banding qualifications.

  • Advanced qualifications allow you to create the following:

  • Custom expressions, which are customized filter expressions. You can use Apply functions and you can create relationship filters. For more information, see Creating custom expression qualifications for custom groups.

  • Joint element lists, which join attribute elements and then filter the result sets. For more information, see Creating joint element list qualifications for custom groups.

  • Prompted custom groups provide dynamic custom group definitions which can change with every report execution. Most qualification types allow prompts. For more information, see About prompted custom groups.

You can use different types of filtering qualifications in the same custom group element. For example, you can combine "Region = Northeast" (an attribute qualification) with "Revenue > $1 million" (a metric qualification). You cannot combine banding qualifications with other types of qualifications, however. You can add that qualification to the report filter so that it will determine the values of the custom group elements. You can then specify how the custom group interacts with the report filter, as described in Custom group interaction with the report filter.

For more information and examples of custom groups, see the Custom Groups and Consolidations chapter in the Advanced Reporting Help. For information on qualifications in general, see the chapters on filters in the Basic Reporting Help and the Advanced Reporting Help.