The art of using calculations

within Oracle Discoverer

ODTUG 2006

Michael Armstrong-Smith
Armstrong-Smith Consulting
Art of using calculations within
Discoverer

Data is limited – imagination knows no

bounds

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outside
About Michael

Member of Oracle Corporation’s customer advisory board for

business intelligence
Co-author of “Oracle Discoverer Handbook”
Presenter at IOUG, OAUG and ODTUG
Fellow of Institute of Analysts and Programmers
MetaLink and OTN Forum panel expert
8 years experience of Discoverer and Oracle Applications
25 years IT experience
Nominated Oracle ACE - 2006
Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook

Released March
2006

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Two books available

in drawing today
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Mastering Discoverer

Mastering Discoverer is an art - not a science –

and is not something you can just throw a
resource at and expect to see a successful,
efficient, smooth running environment.

Without adequate training and guidance you will

not get the most out of Discoverer.

Mastering calculations is a great step

Session Objectives

This session covers:

Administrators – use calculations to:
Create new items
Manage security
– Row-based
– Item-based
End Users – use calculations to:
Create new data types
Analyze data using analytic functions
– Includes an overview of analytic functions
Q&A – 10 minutes at the end
Administrators

Create new items

Pre-defined logic
Watch the aggregation
Manage security
Row based
Item based
Creating new items
Pre-defined algorithms

To create a calculation, use the following workflow:

1. Click on the Data tab.
2. Click on the folder name or click on any item in the
folder upon which the calculation will be based.
3. Right click and select New Item.
4. The New Item dialog box will open.
5. Name the calculation.
6. Create the calculation using items and functions.
7. Click OK.
Profit

In our business area we have two metrics for Selling

Price and Cost Price in the Sales folder. The end user
tells you that what she needs to see is the difference
between the two, the Profit. This is a simple calculation
for you to predefine and to the end user it will simply
appear as an additional item in the Sales folder.
The really great thing about it is that the end user can
select the calculation without adding the items upon
which it is based. You will be showered with praise for
your brilliance!
Profit – workflow 1

1. Expand the list of folders in the Sales Department

business area.
2. Click on the heading for the Sales folder.
3. Right click and select New Item.
4. The New Item dialog box will open.
5. Name the calculation Profit.
6. Open the Sales folder (notice that the items are
displayed in alphabetical order).
Profit – workflow 2
Profit – workflow 3

6. Open the Sales folder (notice that the items are

displayed in alphabetical order).
7. Select Selling Price and paste it into the
Calculation area.
8. Click or type the minus sign.
9. Select Cost Price and paste it into the Calculation
area.
10. Because we want the calculation to be summed
whenever users select items from the business
area, we will use the SUM function to complete the
calculation.
Profit – workflow 4
Aggregation icon

The new calculation appears as an item at the bottom

of the Sales folder. Move it up so that it is below Selling
Price.

Notice the
new icon for
Profit?
Managing security

Row-based
Prevents a complete row being visible to a
user
Item-based
Prevents content of an item being visible to
a user
Row-based security
Row-based security

What do we need?
Database table
Entries in the table
Database function
A calculation
A mandatory condition
Security workflow

1. Create the security table

2. Create the security index
3. Grant select rights
4. Populate the table
5. Create a function
6. Import function into Discoverer
7. Create mandatory condition using embedded
calculation
8. Test
Security Table

CREATE TABLE GEN_SECR(

USERNAME VARCHAR2(8) NOT NULL,
SEC_TYPE VARCHAR2(32) NOT NULL,
SEC_IND INTEGER NOT NULL);

In the above table, the three columns are used as

follows:
USERNAME Oracle username
SEC_TYPE An identifier for the item to secure.
SEC_IND Use 0 for no access, 1 for access
Security workflow - continued

Create an index:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX GEN_SECR_PK ON
GEN_SECR(USERNAME, SEC_TYPE);

Grant access
GRANT SELECT ON GEN_SECR TO PUBLIC;

Populate the table:

INSERT INTO GEN_SECR VALUES
('DRAKE', SALES', 1);

INSERT INTO GEN_SECR VALUES

('MSMITH', ‘SALES', 0);
Security workflow - continued

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION F_GEN_SEC

(SEC_TYPE_IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN NUMBER IS
GEN_ACCESS NUMBER := 0;
BEGIN
USER is a system variable and contains the Oracle user id of the
currently logged in user
SELECT SEC_IND INTO GEN_ACCESS
FROM
GEN_SECR A
WHERE
A.USERNAME = USER
AND A.SEC_TYPE = SEC_TYPE_IN;
RETURN (GEN_ACCESS);
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
RETURN (GEN_ACCESS);
WHEN OTHERS THEN
RETURN (GEN_ACCESS);
END F_GEN_SEC;
Security workflow - continued

Import function into Discoverer Admin:

1. Use Tools | Import PL/SQL functions
2. Click Import
3. Locate function to be imported
4. Click OK
5. Click Validate – should be valid
6. Check Arguments
7. Click OK
Security workflow – continued

Create mandatory condition using embedded

calculation
1. Navigate to folder to be protected
2. Right-click in folder, on any item, and from pop-up
select New Condition
3. Under Item: select Create Calculation
F_GEN_SEC('SALES') = 1
1. Click OK
2. Test using Discoverer Plus
Item-based Security
Item-based security

We will use the same table, but rather than secure a

whole table, we will secure an individual item

Let’s secure the Credit Limit and prevent user MSMITH

from seeing the content of that item

Populate the table:

INSERT INTO GEN_SECR VALUES
('DRAKE', CREDIT', 1);

INSERT INTO GEN_SECR VALUES

('MSMITH', ‘CREDIT', 0);
Item-based security - workflow

1. Locate and right-click on the item you want to

secure
2. From the pop-up menu select Properties
3. Rename the item by adding the characters OLD to
the end of the name.
4. Change the Visible to user property to No
5. Click OK to close the Item Properties dialog box.
6. Right-click on the item again, and from the pop-up
menu select New Item.
Item-based security - continued

7. The New Item dialog box will open.

8. Give this new item exactly the same name as the
item you renamed in step 3
9. Check the Functions radio button. The Show box
will display a list of the function folders. Functions
that have been imported into Discoverer are
located in the Database folder.
10. Expand the Database folder and select the function
you imported earlier
Item-based security - continued

11. Click Paste. The function specification will be

pasted into the Calculation.
12. Complete the calculation using DECODE
DECODE(F_GEN_SEC('CREDIT'),1,
Credit Limit OLD,NULL)
11. Click OK to close the New Item dialog box
12. Move the item to its correct location by placing it
immediately above the original item
13. Test using Plus
End Users

Let’s use calculations to:

Create new data types
Analyze data using analytic functions
Includes an overview of analytic functions
Use of the analytic template
Creating rankings
Creating running totals
Creating top / bottom n values
Creating sequenced analytic operations
New Data Types
Creating new data types

Use calculations to create new data types within

your worksheet.
These new types only exist within the worksheet.
After you have create a new data type, you can:
Create sorts
Create totals
Create other calculations.
Let’s say we want to generate a new data type called
Category, and this category has three values
High
Middle
Low
New data types - continued

We want to analyze our sales and work out our top

selling customers, such that customers with:
Sales > 9 million are High
Sales > 4 million but <= 9 million are Middle
Sales <= 4 million are Low
Basic Requirement

Syntax:
IF Sales > 9,000,000
THEN HIGH
ELSE IF Sales > 4,000,000
THEN MIDDLE
ELSE LOW
A WHEN – WHEN situation

Use a CASE statement

CASE
WHEN Sales > 9000000 THEN ‘High’
WHEN Sales > 4000000 THEN ‘Middle’
ELSE ‘Low’
END

Is this a WHEN – WHEN or a WIN – WIN situation?

Let’s do it using an existing workbook

Launch the New Calculation dialog box.

1. Name the calculation Category.
2. From the Show drop-down list, select Functions.
3. Scroll down then expand Others.
4. Select the CASE function and paste into the
calculation
New data types – continued

5. The calculation should look like this:

6. Click OK to close the New Calculation dialog box.

7. Drag the Category to the Page Items.
New data types – continued

Note the drop-down of new categories

Three new categories

Analytic Functions
Using analytic functions

Analytic functions are functions that run against

the data in a query after the query has
computed its normal results.
Whereas standard functions and calculations,
such as profit, execute on a row-by-row basis
as the query runs, analytic functions run against
the results.
They support basic business intelligence
calculations such as moving averages,
rankings, and running totals.
Typical business questions

What is my best performing product in terms of

sales?
What are my top n / bottom n selling products?
How do sales this year compare to last year?
What is the 3 month moving average of sales?
What products sell more than 20% of total sales
for their product line?
Of my top 10 products, how many open orders
do I have?
Categorizing analytic functions

Analytic functions fall into the following categories:

Ranking - used to calculate the rank of a value in a
result set.
Window Aggregates - used to calculate cumulative
sums, running totals and moving averages.
Reporting Aggregates - can be used to calculate
market share.
Lag / Lead - can be used to find a value in a row
offset from a current row. Perhaps this year
compared to last year.
Processing Order

When analytic functions are in use, query

processing takes place in three stages:
All joins, WHERE, GROUP BY and HAVING
clauses are performed first.
The resulting set of data is made available to
the analytic functions and those calculations
take place.
If the query contains a sort, this is
processed.
Partitions

An important concept in the use of analytics is

to define a partition:
A partition is a set of data that has been
ordered into a group of rows.
Discoverer page items and group sorts form
natural partitions.

Note: this term is unrelated to database table partitions

Building effective analytics

In order to build a Discoverer worksheet that

makes use of analytical functions, you need
to build worksheets in the following order:
Build the base worksheet.
Add Page Items and / or Group Sorts.
Define the analytic function.
Create the remaining sorts.
Analytic Templates
Using analytic templates

In older releases of Discoverer, and in all

Desktop versions, even though the use of
analytic functions is supported, you have to
manually type the function yourself.
In recent editions of Discoverer Plus, Oracle
has inserted a new button on the New
Calculation dialog box called Insert Formula
from Template.
Insert formula from Template

Click here
List of available templates
Analytic Examples
Base Query
Ranking
Ranking

Start out from our base query

Launch the New Calculation dialog box
Click the Insert Formula from Template
button.
From the list of available templates, select
Rank.
Discoverer opens the Rank dialog box
Rank dialog box
Rank dialog box explained - 1

Rank based on
Use this area to define the item(s) on which the
ranking should be based.
Discoverer will always try to populate this area for
you.
By default, it will use the first data point that it finds.
If this is not the one that you want to rank by,
change it.
You can also state whether the highest value or the
lowest value should be used to start the ranking.
Rank dialog box explained - 2

Restart ranking at each change on

This is the partition area. Discoverer will
automatically populate this area using the Page
Items and Group Sorts that you are using.
As you can see on screen, we have a Group Sort
based on the Product Size. Discoverer has
automatically brought this into the formula.
Discoverer will restart the ranking according to the
items that you place in here, inserting these items
into the PARTITION BY clause of the SQL.
Rank dialog box explained - 3

Rank Ties
This area is used to tell Discoverer whether to use
standard ranking or dense ranking.

A standard ranking will omit a number when there is

a tie for the preceding number.

A dense ranking ranks all possible values are used.

Rank dialog box explained - 4

Calculation
This area is used by Discoverer to display
the SQL code that will be generated when
you click OK.
You cannot manually change this code at
this time. To change the code, you need to
use the template.
Completing the Ranking

Once you have completed the template, clicking OK

causes Discoverer to create the function.
Discoverer places a copy of the SQL into the New
Calculation dialog box.
Assuming you have defined the function correctly,
all that remains now is for you to give the function a
name and click OK.
After completing the function, you should check the
format for both the heading and the data.
We typically center all of our rank functions and sort
by the rank.
Completed Ranking
Running Total
Running Total

Staying in our query

Launch the New Calculation dialog box
Click the Insert Formula from Template
button.
From the list of available templates, select
Running Total.
Discoverer opens the Running Total dialog
box
Running Total dialog box
Running Total dialog box explained - 1

Running Total based on

Use this area to define the item(s) on which the
running total should be based.

Discoverer will always try to populate this area for

you.

By default, it will use the first data point that it finds.

If this is not the one that you want to total by,
change it.
Running Total dialog box explained - 2

Order rows by
Use this area to define the item(s) that you want to
order the query by.

This will typically, but not always, be the same item

that is being used for the running total calculation
itself.

In our case, Discoverer has picked our ranking

analytic function because we placed a sort on it.
Running Total dialog box explained - 3

Restart running total at each change on

This is the partition area. Discoverer will
automatically populate this area using the Page
Items and Group Sorts that you are using.
As you saw on screen, we have a Group Sort based
on the Product Size. Discoverer has automatically
brought this into the formula.
Discoverer will restart the running total according to
the items that you place in here, inserting these
items into the PARTITION BY clause of the SQL.
Running Total dialog box explained - 4

Calculation
This area is used by Discoverer to display the SQL
code that will be generated when you click OK.

You cannot manually change this code at this time.

To change the code, you need to use the template.
Completed Running Total
Top / Bottom n values
Top / bottom n selling products

Use this workflow:

Create another calculation, identical to the ranking
calculation, except that the order by is reversed.

This will only be used in a condition.

Do not allow the second ranking to display on

screen.

Add a dynamic parameter that prompts user for the

top / bottom n value.
The two SQL snippets

First ranking
RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY Size
ORDER BY Profit DESC )

Second ranking (condition only)

RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY Size
ORDER BY Profit ASC )
Create Dynamic Parameter
Add a condition that uses the
parameter

Build this boolean condition

Ranking <= Top / Bottom

OR
Rank (condition only) <= Top /Bottom
Boolean condition

Note: Because the Top / Bottom dynamic parameter

is now being referenced it will now be prompted
Parameter is prompted
Run the query with 2

Notice how only the top and bottom 2 values have

been returned but that the bottom line is still correct
Last Year vs This Year
Last Year Example

In this example, we have a worksheet that

shows total sales for this and last year.
Last Year’s calculation

In case you are interested:

SUM(Selling Price SUM)
OVER(PARTITION BY Size,Product
ORDER BY TO_DATE("Year",'YYYY')
RANGE BETWEEN INTERVAL '1' YEAR
PRECEDING AND INTERVAL '1' YEAR
PRECEDING )

When RANGE INTERVAL = YEAR the

ORDER BY must return a date!
Sequencing
Sequencing Conditions

The power and flexibility of Discoverer enables

almost unlimited analytic capabilities.

As an example, lets start with our report that

returns the top 10 products by size.
Non-sequenced Conditions

Create two new conditions:

Condition 1: Ranking <= 10
Condition 2: Status = OPEN

There is an implied AND clause between the conditions with the

non-analytic being applied first
Sequenced conditions

Create a single boolean condition

Ranking <= 10
AND
Status = OPEN

In a boolean condition, the analytic component is applied first, thus

sequencing the conditions
Benefits of using Discoverer

There are a number of benefits to using Discoverer

to create reports using analytic functions.
The Oracle database does not support analytic
functions directly referencing other analytic
functions (nesting) or directly applying conditions to
the query (e.g. only show Top N products).
To achieve this in a SQL statement requires the
creation of inline views.
Discoverer removes this layer of complexity from
the end user by breaking down the query into it’s
components and resolving such conflicts by creating
the appropriate inline views
Q&A
Thank You

Please remember to complete your evaluation form

Presenter - Michael Armstrong-Smith
Session name – Art of using calculations within
Discoverer

For more information or to get help about Discoverer

10.1.2 please contact Michael

michael@learndiscoverer.com
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