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1. What are the various output formats in which you can generate a
report in cognos8?
Answer:
You can produce a report in HTML, PDF, CSV, various Excel formats, and XML.
You cannot produce a report in CSV or XML format if you have more than one
query defined in the report, unless the additional queries are used for prompts.
You cannot produce the following in CSV format:
• Maps
• Charts that do not have at least one category or series
You cannot produce the following in XML format:
• Maps
• Charts that do not have at least one category or series
The following Cognos 8 limitations exist when producing reports in Microsoft
Excel format.

2. What are the limitations of generating a report in Excel sheet?

Accessing Reports on a Remote Server
To access a report in Excel format on a remote server, you must change the
hostname portion of the gateway URI from localhost to either the IP address of
the computer or the computer name.
You do this using Cognos Configuration.
Drill-through Reports
Cognos 8 does not support drill-through for reports in Excel format.
Map Reports
Cognos 8 does not support map reports in Excel format.
Formats Not Supported for Reports in Excel Format
Cognos 8 does not support the following for reports in Excel formats:
• background images in table cells
• Excel-specific headers and footers
• text flow and justification
• floating text objects
• white space, normal, and wrap text formatting
• maximum characters
Some layouts do not show exactly in HTML and PDF due to Microsoft Excel
limitations.
Hyperlink Buttons
Microsoft Excel does not support hyperlink buttons.
Emailing Reports in Excel Format
Cognos 8 can send Excel reports in HTML and XML format by email. However,
the Excel email attachments must be saved to your computer before you can view
them.
Charting Support in Excel and Cognos 8
The following Cognos 8 chart properties are not supported in Microsoft Excel:
• tool tips
• conditional text
• depth
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• visual angle
• show values
• marker text location
• show baseline
• new note
• new marker
• truncation text and allow n-degrees rotation category labels
• border
• margin
• box type
• font and font alignment
• footer
• subtitle
• regression line
• baseline

3. How do you create report templates in cognos8?

A report template is a pattern that is used to build reports. Report templates
will be used when the same type of report is frequently produced. A template can
include the following objects:
• HTML items
• Hyperlinks
• Page numbers
• Images
• Tables
• Text items
• Blocks
• Layout calculations
• Date
• Time

Steps
1. Create a new report or open an existing report.
2. Add the objects you want to the work area.
3. From the File menu, click Convert To Template.
Any query-related information in the original report, such as data items, calculations, and
Filters, is removed from the template.
4. From the File menu, click Save As to save the template as a new file and keep the
original
Report intact.

4. Explain the purpose of Query studio template?

Create a Query Studio template to provide Query Studio users with a layout that
they can use to
Create reports or apply to existing reports. You can also use the Query Studio
template to define a layout for prompt pages.
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Steps
1. From the File menu, click New.
2. Click Query Studio Template and click OK.
3. Pause the pointer over the page explorer button and click the report
page or prompt page you want to format.
4. In the Insertable Objects pane, click the toolbox tab.
5. Add the objects you want to the work area.
If you add objects that are not supported by Query Studio, the objects will
be ignored when you apply the template.
6. Save the template.

5. What are the types of reports? Explain.

In Report Studio, you can create the following types of reports:
• list
Use list reports to show detailed information from your database, such as
product lists and customer lists.
A list report is a report that shows data in rows and columns. Each column
shows all the values for a data item in the database or a calculation based on data
items in the database.

• crosstab
crosstab reports are reports that show data in rows and columns. However,
the values at the intersection points of rows and columns show summarized
information rather than detailed information.

• chart
Use to show data in graphical representation. Used for comparative and
trends analysis.

• map
use to represent tabular data in a spatial context.
Maps are most often used to show geographical areas, but they can be
used to show other spatial information, such as a floor plan in a building, seats in
an airplane, or parts of the human body.

• repeater
Use repeaters to repeat items when you run the report. For example, you
can use repeaters to create mailing labels, including customer names and
addresses. You can also combine one or more of these in a single report.

6. What is the difference between group and section?

Group data items in a list report to remove duplicate values. For example, you
have a report that shows products purchased. For each product, the product type is also
shown. You group the Product type column to show only one instance of each product
type in the list.
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Create sections in a report to show a data item as the heading of a section. When you run
the report, separate sections appear for each value. Creating sections is similar to creating
headers by grouping on a data item. The difference is that section headers appear outside
the list, crosstab, chart, or repeater. In addition, you can group data items only in lists.

7. What is Group span?

When columns are grouped, you can choose how often to show column names by
changing the group spanning. For example, when country and city are both grouped, you
can choose to show the country name each time
• the country changes, by spanning Country by Country
• the city changes, by spanning Country by City
• there is a new record, by specifying no spanning
Spanning one grouped column by another column is helpful if the second column
contains many items.

8. Explain advanced grouping and sorting?

You can perform more advanced groupings in a list to get the results you want. For
example, you can group a data item that appears in a query but not in the layout.
For example, in a list, you can sort columns within groups and change the sort order of
columns. In a crosstab, you can sort a row or column by another item, such as Order year
by Revenue.

9. How do you remove sections from the report?

To remove sections and reinsert the data item used to create the sections to the
data container, do the following:
Steps
1. From the View menu, click Page Structure.
2. Expand the page containing the data container with the section.
3. Expand Page Body until you see the data container in which you added the
section. The data container is nested in the List Column Body object of the List object
that is created when you add a section.
4. Drag the data container to Page Body.
The data container appears as a node of Page Body.
5. Delete the List object.
6. From the View menu, click Page Design.
7. In the Insertable Objects pane, click the data items tab.
8. Drag the data item that was used as a section header back into the data
container.
9. If you created sections in a list without creating a master-detail relationship,
click the data item and then click the group/ungroup button to ungroup the item.
For information abou the page structure view, see "The Page Structure View".
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10. What is a base line?

Baselines are horizontal or vertical lines which cut through the chart to indicate
major divisions in the data. For example, you can add a baseline to show a sales
quota or break-even point. You can add baselines based on
• A numeric value
• A query calculation or layout calculation
• A data minimum, maximum, mean, or percentile
• A percentage along the axis

11.If a user selects a value in a prompt how can we display in report

viewer?
a. Below are the steps to display selected value from a value prompt in report
viewer.
i. Go to page explorer, select the page on which the value has to be
displayed.
ii. From tool box, drag layout calculation into the report.
iii. In the expression definition, select parameters, and drag the
required parameter into the expression definition.
iv. Select ok.

12. What is the use of level span in cognos8?

a. When columns are grouped, you can choose how often to show column
names by changing the level spanning. For example, when country and
city are both grouped, you can choose to show the country name each time
 the country changes, by spanning Country by Country
 the city changes, by spanning Country by City
 there is a new record, by specifying no spanning
Spanning one grouped column by another column is helpful if the second
column contains many items.

13.What is the use of conditional block?

a. A block which gets displayed based on condition defined in the variable
associated with it. It is basically used for conditional display.
Use Conditional Blocks when presenting the same data in different
formats based on user preference. For instance, some data can be
presented in a crosstab format and a graph. A user may wish to use a
different representation of the data in different situations. By using
Conditional Blocks a single report can meet both presentation needs.

14. What is the use of render variable?

a. Render variables are used to specify which objects are rendered when a
report is run. This is useful when your report contains sensitive data.
Conditional rendering is not the same as showing or hiding objects.
When you hide an object, the object exists but is transparent. If an object
is not rendered, it is not in the report.
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b. Steps
1. Open the report that you want.
2. Select the list column to be rendered conditionally.
You must select the list column, not list column body or list column title.
If the body or title is selected, as indicated in the Properties pane, use the
select ancestor button to select the list column.
3. In the Properties pane, double-click the Render Variable property.
4. Click Variable and click the variable that will be used to determine if
the column is to be rendered.
5. In the Render for box, select the values you want the condition to
support and click OK.

15. What is the major diff between list and crosstab reports?
a. Lists are used to show detail information in the form of a table.
b. Crosstabs show summarized information in the form of a two dimensional
grid. The intersection of rows and columns gives summarized data.
Crosstab is used for comparative and trends analysis.

16. Can you change the report’s package from one package to another?
a. We can change the report’s package.
b. Steps:
i. Open the report.
ii. Go to file menu. Select report package.
iii. Select the required package from list of packages available and
select ok.

17. How can we remove the duplicate records in Report studio? Can it
improve the performance or not
a. Duplicate records can be eliminated by using grouping. It will not improve
the performance as the data in the group is hidden from the user and not
removed.

18. What is the use of layout component reference?

a. By using layout component reference we can save time by reusing layout
objects that are added to a report instead of re-creating them. For example,
if we have a multiple-page report and want to show the company logo in
the page header of each page. We can Insert the logo once and reuse it on
all other pages.
c. In cognos8, layout objects can be reused across the reports by using layout
component reference.

19. How can we do the union in report studio?

a. Union query is used to combine two or more queries into one result set.
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We can combine queries that use different data sources. For example, you
can combine a query that returns data from a dimensional data source with
a query that returns data from a relational data source.
To combine two queries, the following conditions must be met:
• The two queries must have the same number of data items.
• The data types of the data items must be compatible and the data
items must appear in the same order.
For numeric data types, integer, float, double, and decimal are
compatible. For string data types, char, varChar, and longVarChar
are compatible. For binary data types, binary and varBinary are
compatible. Date data types must match perfectly.
Steps:
1.Open the report that you want.
2. Pause the pointer over the query explorer button and click
Queries.
3. In the Insertable Objects pane, do the following:
• Drag Query to the work area.
• Drag Union, Intersect, or Except to the right of the
query.
Two drop zones appear to the right of the operator.
• Drag a Query object to each drop zone.
Two queries are created in the work area and a shortcut to
each query appears in the drop zones.
4. Double-click each query that makes up the union query and add
the data items that you want.

20. What is the use of slicer?

a. Slicers are used to create dimensional filters that reduce the data included
in measure rollups. A slicer is a filter that is applied to the cells but not the
rows or columns in a crosstab.
b. A slicer member set is an expression that returns a set of members from
the same dimension. You can create multiple slicer member sets if you
want to filter across two or more dimensions.
c. You cannot create multiple slicer member sets against the same
dimension. You can add a child member of a report item as a slicer. For
example, you create a crosstab with Product line as rows, Year as
columns, and Revenue as the measure. You drag Sleeping Bags to the
Slicer pane. When you run the report, all product lines appear in the
crosstab, but a value appears only for the Camping Equipment row
because Sleeping Bags is a child of Camping Equipment.