You can use filters to limit the data that appears in the report. You can narrow the information based on specific conditions. Filter is a condition, which you can choose to apply on your report data. You can apply multiple conditions by joining them with AND/OR operators.
Filter Section properties
| Item | Values | Comments |
| Max. Rows | 0-N | Maximum number of rows to be fetched for this report. When you are using a data set that returns too many rows or when you are not sure of number of rows, this is the tool to restrict the size of the report.
(Note: Reports generated with Max. rows set may contain incomplete information of your business data) |
| Suppress Duplicates | Check/Uncheck | Yes = Removes consecutive duplicate records from the report.
(Note: Distant duplicate rows may still exist in the report) (Note: Make sure that the report is sorted on all the report fields) |
Ad hoc Filters
| Item | Values | Comments |
| Field | Select from list | Select the field on which you wish to apply filter |
| Criteria | Select from list | Select the operator to be used in the filter. These are comparison operators based on the data type of the selected field.
The between operator prompts for two values |
| Use Field | Check/Uncheck | Check = When Use Field is checked, Value gets populated with Field values for comparison |
| Value | Type yourself or select from list | Based on the configuration of this field in the meta layer, the value list appears |
| Relation | AND
OR |
AND = The next condition is applied with combined conjunction of this condition
OR = The next condition is applied in alternate conjunction of this condition |
| Open/Close | (
(( ((( (((( ((((( ) )) ))) )))) ))))) |
Braces to group a set of conditions for applying appropriate AND/OR combination |
Actions
| Item | Comments |
Add Filter |
Add a new filter condition row |
Remove Filter |
Remove current filter condition row |
Selecting values from Lists and Multi-Select List
The value select list may behave differently for different fields based on how they have been configured by your data administrator for best performance. You can configure Lookup Values for fields while designing the Query Object. To know more about Query Objects, refer WorkingwithQueryObjects
List behavior
| Criteria | List behavior | Comments |
| In List | Pre-populated List is loaded as soon as the field is selected | This field generally has less number of values, it is always faster to pre-fetch the values before loading the Ad hoc Report Designer |
| List populates when you pull the drop down | This field generally has medium number of values, it is better to fetch values only when you try to use this field for filtering | |
| List shows a hint “Search..” with a search drop down icon | This field generally has a large number of values. You start typing in first few characters and a shortlist will automatically appear for selection |
Entering values for Network ID formatted fields (specified on the Query Object Editor screen)
- IP: It needs to be specified as a set of 4 numbers (decimal) separated by dots or written in hexadecimal and separated by semicolon. (IPv4, IPv6 IP addresses are supported)
- MAC Address: It needs to be specified as a set of 6 numbers (hexa) separated by colon. Each of the number needs to be between x00 (00) and xFF (FF). Example: 15:FF:01:F1:01:B4.
TIP: While specifying MAC address, putting a colon between the hexa digits is not necessary. The application will automatically insert colon after every second ‘digit’ (starting from right side). Example: number entered is FF101B4; Number changed to is 00:00:0F:F1:01:B4.
Linked Filters
A Field could be linked to one or more other fields for fetching available values for filtering.
This is to handle situations like short listing states when a country is selected.
You may need to select parent field, apply filter before selecting a child field to apply filter. The child field is specified as a Link Lookup field linked to parent field at the Query Object level.
Figure 4: Filters as Link Lookup
Selecting Dynamic Dates
When you select a date field to apply filter, you have an option to specify a dynamic date variable – is in last, is in next etc.
This helps to re-run saved reports without having to change the date value to get then current date range applied.
For example,
- Date of hire is in last 10 days from today (report generation date).
- Date of sales transaction is in this Quarter.
- Transaction Date is in last month.
- Date of retirement is in next
For criteria, you may select any of the following:
- is in last
- in this
- is in next
If in this is selected as Criteria, the Value drop down box has following options to choose from:
- Year
- Quarter
- Month
- Week
- Day
- Hour
- Minute
If is in last or is in next is selected in Criteria, specify the number of Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), Quarter(s) or years (as the case may be) in Value entry box. Explanation for each of the option is given below:
- Year(s): The number of years from the date of report generation.
- Quarter(s): The number of quarters from the date of report generation. A quarter is January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December.
- Month(s): The number of months from the date of report generation.
- Week(s): The number of weeks from the date of report generation. A week is considered from Sunday to Saturday.
- Day(s): The number of days from the date of report generation.
- Hour (s): The number of hours from the date of report generation.
- Minute (s): The number of minutes from the date of report generation.