TM1 Forum

Hi all,
sorry if this is a dumb question - am just curious, for the garden variety user, is there a straightforward way for them to filter elements by multiple attributes and/or multiple attribute values? (assuming they don't wish to delve too much into MDX / dynamic subsets etc)

...any tips on training users in this area?

thanks!

Matt

There's a button in the Subset Editor with a caption of 'Filter by Attribute'. You can keep clicking on this to filter the current subset and thereby whittle down the end result. The GUI doesn't allow them to select multiple attributes at the same time so it's limited in that respect - you have to do it several times to get an X AND Y AND Z type of result.

If you want more complex logic (like (X OR Y) AND Z) then it definitely starts getting a bit more complicated and looking at MDX starts to offer efficiencies although it may not be intuitive for 'garden variety' users. However, I've found even quite un-technical users to be quite happy using the 'recorder' functionality for dynamic subsets. Once again, the recorder can't do everything as it is limited by the GUI too... If you are wondering if you should start training people in MDX then maybe you need to re-think the approach - for instance, pre-defining regularly-used subsets when you update the dimensions, is going to be helpful. It depends how much spoon-feeding you want to do as well...

The training method is just to get them to use the function more than once on the dimension they are interested in to prove the point ... I get the feeling that doesn't address what you were getting at?

Thanks for the response - I guess what I'm looking for is "Filter by Attribute A, for string X,Y and Z"... am aware of the drop down tool - if only there was a hold down Ctrl+select multiple function!

...I have considered creating subsets and rollups, but was just exploring if there is an alternative "self service" method of doing it

fleaster wrote:I guess what I'm looking for is "Filter by Attribute A, for string X,Y and Z"...just exploring if there is an alternative "self service" method of doing it

Yes I see, and it is quite annoying that there isn't anything in the GUI to help. The custom auto-filter in Excel (equals, does not equal, is greater than, etc, etc) where you can chain multiple conditions together is a perfect example of what would work really well in the subset editor to get that sort of job done.