Use subsets in DBRW

[AskAndAnswer]

I have a report that used a dimension subset in DBRW formula. It worked in Perspectives, but it does not work in PAX custom report. Is there anything that can mimic the functionality besides creating an alternate hierarchy in the dimension? Virtual dimensions don't work in the custom reports, as far as I know.

[lotsaram]

User Defined Consolidations aren't supported in PAX. So you can't use a subset name as a pseudo-consolidation. You need to use an actual consolidation.

[AskAndAnswer]

That's what I was trying to avoid, and in fact there is a work around - create a hidden dynamic report with the given subset in the TM1RPTROW and a sum underneath, then refer the sum.

[Steve Rowe]

I'm always curious about the desire for UDCs and avoiding setting up a true consolidation, can I ask what your use case is such that you don't want to set-up a consolidation?

[Wim Gielis]

Hi Steve,

Anything related to ad hoc analysis, or related to user choices, leading to elements / consolidations of which the sum needs to be shown.
A regular Excel pivot table can show the sum of the visible elements, so why not TM1 in an easy way ?
For more structural consolidations, I would create them in the dimension as regular consolidations.
But it's not always easy or foreseeable which totals will be needed afterwards.

[Mark RMBC]

Hi,

I raised this issue here:

https://www.tm1forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=72800#p72800

I tend to agree with Wim, it was for simplicity, an easy way to retrieve a value.

But I guess the workaround is pretty straightforward!

cheers, Mark

[Steve Rowe]

The need to generate ad-hoc totals from a random lists of elements is a valid use-case, I just don't like the subset / UDC driven solution. If they are starting from scratch I think there are probably better ways we can deliver ad-hoc totals without the loss of control that subset as totals and other UDCs bring.

I think that just reproducing the legacy approach to ad-hoc totals is a bit "lazy", they ought to be going back to the requirements and thinking about the best way of delivering them...easy to say of course!

For example, the dynamic report use case seems to be the most common, wouldn't it be better if there was just a flag in the TM1RptRow formula that meant that a total was always generated?

All hypothetical I guess...

[antcharwill]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but perhaps better than starting a new one on the same topic!

That's what I was trying to avoid, and in fact there is a work around - create a hidden dynamic report with the given subset in the TM1RPTROW and a sum underneath, then refer the sum.

Isn't this much more cumbersome than just allowing subsets in DBRW formulas?

We've just migrated to PAx I've got a load of pre-existing reports that make heavy use of subsets in cube reads, and having to add dynamic reports to all my workbooks then referencing the sums seems daft compared to just having a single DBRW("blah", "blah","blah","blah","Europe + CIS") formula that does all that for me.

This appears to be a real step backwards.