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Drilling on a report

Drilling allows you to look at specific data at levels other than that of the originally displayed grid or graph. It allows you to retrieve more information after a report has been executed. The new data is obtained by requerying the database at a different attribute or fact level.

To drill on a report, you can right-click a report component and then select the direction to drill and the destination object. If you instead drill using the Drill dialog box, you can override the default settings, as described in Keeping or removing the parent, thresholds, across-level subtotals, and page-by on a drilled-to report.

You can drill down, up, or across attributes, custom groups, and consolidations displayed in a report:

  • Drilling down allows access to data at progressively lower levels within a hierarchy. For example, if the attribute level displayed for geography is region, drilling down would allow you to see information at the state, city, or store level.

  • Similarly, you can broaden the scope of information by drilling up to levels of data increasingly higher within a hierarchy. For example, if time is shown at the date level, drilling up could display this hierarchy at the week, month, or quarter level.

  • Additionally, you can use drill across from one attribute level to another, either within a hierarchy or across hierarchies. In other words, you can drill in any direction, allowing you to find specific element values. This is also referred to as Free drilling.

For more information on drilling, including images and examples, see the Basic Reporting Help.

When you drill on a report, you are restricted to the drill map associated with the report. The drill map determines the available drill paths (directions and destinations) and drilling options, although the report can override the drilling options (for directions, see Setting drilling options for a report). For a definition of drill maps and drill paths, see About drill maps and associations; for descriptions of the drilling options, see Creating a new drill path.

To drill on a report

You can right-click a report component to quickly and easily perform a drill. However, you are restricted by the drill options defined for the report and the report object's drill map. To override the default settings, drill using the Drill dialog box, as described in Keeping or removing the parent, thresholds, across-level subtotals, and page-by on a drilled-to report.

  1. Run a report. (For steps to run a report, see Running a report.)

  2. Right-click the report component (attribute, consolidation, custom group, or metric) to drill on.

    You can select several rows or columns by using the Ctrl+ click feature. For example, you select a row on which to drill. You can select an additional row by pressing Ctrl and then clicking on that row. Similarly, you can clear a particular row by pressing Ctrl and then clicking on that row. Only the data from the selected rows appear in the new report.

  3. Point to Drill, select the direction in which to drill, and then select the object to drill to. The new report is executed.

    For example, you drill on Region using the Tutorial Standard Drill Map. You can drill up to Country, down to Call Center, and in other directions to other hierarchies.

    The directions and objects which are available in the drill right-click menu depend on the drill map associated with the original object.

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