Applying
selections as filters or slices
Filtering
Data for the current selection is
calculated only when it is requested by the user. The selections are used to
filter the underlying dataset before the metric values are aggregated at the
level of the Grid/Graph that is displayed in the document. If the source
attribute is not included in the Grid/Graph, the metric values from all the
selected elements are aggregated and shown at the level specified in the
Grid/Graph.
Slicing
Data for each available item in the
selector is calculated in advance when the document is first displayed.
Selections made while viewing the document are used to determine which slices
of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph.
Even if the source attribute
is not included in the Grid/Graph, the data is still sliced at the level of the
source attribute, and therefore the metric values from multiple selected items
are not added together. Instead, the data for each selected element is shown
separately in the Grid/Graph, the same as if the source attribute had been
included in the Grid/Graph.
For example:
The dataset report of a document
contains Region, Year, and the Revenue metric. A Grid/Graph displays Year and
Revenue only, and is targeted by a selector with Region as its source. The
selector is defined to slice the data. When Central is selected, three rows,
one for each year, are displayed, as shown below:
If you select Mid-Atlantic as well
as Central, six rows are displayed, two for each year, as shown below
This occurs because the selector
slices the data by region before the user selections are made, and cannot
aggregate the slices for multiple regions.
If you change the selector to filter
rather than slice the data, the yearly revenue is aggregated across the selected
regions. The yearly revenue is calculated by adding the Central and
Mid-Atlantic values for each year, and only one row for each year is displayed
in the Grid/Graph, as shown below:
Other important differences between
filtering and slicing selectors are described below:
1) Slicing allows the total to be
displayed as an item in the selector. A filtering selector does not display the
total as a selector item.
2) Slicing allows you to specify
that the selector automatically uses a default selection when other changes in
the document cause the selection made by the user to return no data.
3) If a selector is sliced, you can
define the current state, which determines how the target is displayed when the
document is executed. The target can display all the selector items, a specific
number of the first items in the selector, or a specific number of the last
items in the selector. If a selector is filtered, you can define the current
state as unset only, which displays all the selector items.
When a document is viewed off-line
(exported to Flash, in a subscription, or in MicroStrategy Office):
1) If a selector is applied using
filtering, only the data for the current selections are included
in the document. An off-line user cannot change the selector
and update the target.
2) If a selector is applied using
slicing, all the slices, and therefore all the data, are included in the
document. An off-line user can change the selector and update the target.
3) To continue with the yearly
regional revenue document described above, the selector is applied as a filter.
Only Central is selected, and the document is exported to an MHT file to be
used off-line, without using MicroStrategy. The MHT file contains only the data
for Central, and no other selections can be made.
4) If the selector is applied as a
slice instead, all the data is sliced and included in the MHT file. Even if
only the Central region is selected when the document is exported, you can use
the selector in the MHT file and display other regions.
