Selecting Constants 

Use

In the Query Designer, you use selections to determine the data that you want to display for the report runtime. You can then alter the selections for runtime using navigation and filters, this means that you can restrict the selections further.

The Constant Selection function allows you to mark a selection in the Query Designer as constant. This means that navigation and filtering have no effect on the selection for the runtime. This allows you to easily select reference sizes that you cannot change for the rest of the runtime.

Integration

You can use this function with selections in structural components, cells and restricted key figures.

Features

You can define entire selections as constants for structural components and cells. During navigation, such a selection exists independently of all filters.

Moreover, you can also define components of selections, individual InfoObjects and their filter values, as constant. The selection remains independent of filters in navigation only with regard to this InfoObject.

You cannot select an entire restricted key figure as a constant, only its InfoObjects.

Activities

You can activate the Constant Selection setting for an entire selection in the Selection/Formula Properties dialog box.

You can select an InfoObject of a selection as constant in the following way:

...

       1.      Choose Edit from the context menu of a selection. The Change Selection dialog box appears.

       2.      In the Selection Details area, choose Constant Selection from the context menu of the InfoObject that you are using in the selection.

In the same way you can select InfoObjects that you are using in a restricted key figure or in a selection of a cell as constant.

Examples

Market Index

In a product list (product is in drilldown), you want to see a sales revenue normalized (related) to a specific product group rather than the total sales revenue. Using the Constant Selection function, you can select the sales revenue of a specific product group as the constant for the drilldown. You can now relate the sales revenue of the individual products in the product group to the sales revenue of the product group and, for example, determine the revenue from each individual product sales revenue as a proportion of the sales revenue for the product group.

Plan/Actual Problem

In the InfoCube, actual values exist for each period. Plan values only exist for the entire year. These are posted in period 12. To compare the PLAN and ACTUAL values, you have to define a PLAN and ACTUAL column in the query, restrict PLAN to period 12 and mark this selection as a constant selection. This means that you always see the plan values, whichever period you are navigating in.

This also solves problems with the MultiProvider:

The MultiProvider has an InfoCube with the actual values and an InfoCube with the plan values. If the characteristic Calendar Month  is in the plan InfoCube, but not in the actual InfoCube, all data is displayed in a drilldown by Calendar Month under the value # (unassigned). You can define a constant selection for calendar month = # (unassigned). In doing so, you select the yearly plan value as constant, independently of the filter and it is displayed in each row, therefore for every month. You can now divide the yearly plan value by 12. Then you can make plan/actual comparisons on a monthly basis, although there are only yearly values in the plan InfoCube.

Slow-Moving Item List

You can define a query on a MultiProvider that displays all products that have not sold over a specific period of time or that have not sold very well. The query should display all characteristic values for which there is no transaction data in the selected time period or for which there are only very low values. For more information, see List of Slow-Moving Items.