8
Using drilling

This chapter explains how to use Discoverer's drilling capabilities to answer typical business questions, and contains the following topics:

• "About drilling"

• "When to drill"

• "About drilling into numeric data"

• "About drill options"

• "How to drill down"

• "How to drill up"

• "How to drill out"

• "Examples of drilling"

About drilling

Discoverer's drilling capability enables you to navigate worksheet data quickly and easily. Drilling works as follows:

• You drill down to display data in more detail. For example, you might drill down into a year to look at data for individual months in that year.

• You drill up to display data in less detail. For example, you might drill up from a month item to see a summary for the whole year.

  Note: Drilling up is also known as collapsing data, because detail is removed from a worksheet.

• You drill out to display data in another application. For example, you might drill out of a HTML document embedded in a worksheet to view the document in an Internet browser.

  Figure 8-1 Discoverer worksheet with drill capability

  
  
  Text description of the illustration drill10.gif

When to drill

You can drill whenever you see a drill icon on a worksheet. Drill icons are right arrows that appear beside items.

In the example below, a year item has the value '2000'. The right arrow next to the value '2000' indicates that you can drill down into that year, typically to see data for months in that year.

Figure 8-2 Discoverer item with a drill icon

Text description of the illustration drill_ic.gif

When you click a drill icon, Discoverer displays a list of drill options and indicates the current drill level. In the example below, the current drill level is Calendar Quarter.

Figure 8-3 Discoverer drill options

Text description of the illustration drill3.gif

The display options for the detail drill items contain a Collapse option. This option removes the drill detail from the worksheet. In the example below, choosing Collapse removes drill detail.

Figure 8-4 Discoverer drill options with a Collapse option

Text description of the illustration drill8.gif

Note: Alternatively, to collapse drill detail, click the drill icon on the detail and drill up to a higher level.

About drilling into numeric data

When you drill into numeric data, the following rules apply:

• When you drill down, Discoverer breaks down the numeric values at the drill level selected. For example, if you drill into an annual sales figure, you might see the annual sales figure broken down into monthly sales figures.

• When you drill up, Discoverer consolidates numeric values at the drill level selected. For example, if you drill up from monthly sales figures, you might see the monthly sales figures consolidated into an annual sales figure.

About drill options

When using drilling, you use drill options (also known as a drill path) defined by the Discoverer manager. Drill options define what level of detail you can drill to when drilling up or down in worksheet data.

For example, to enable worksheet users to drill into time-based data, the Discoverer manager might define time-based drill options. In the example below, the drill options enable you to navigate from:

• year to month

• month to week

• week to day

  Figure 8-5 Typical Discoverer drill options

  
  
  Text description of the illustration drill1.gif

How to drill down

You drill down into worksheet data to see more detail. For example, you might:

• drill down into an annual sales figure to see data for individual months in that year.

• drill down into a monthly sales figure into sales figures for each week.

To drill down into worksheet data:

1. Click the drill icon next to the item for which you want to see more detail.

   A drop down menu is displayed showing drill options for that item and indicates the current drill level.

2. From the drop down menu, select the level of detail that you want below the current drill level.

   Discoverer displays more detailed data on the worksheet.

How to drill up

You drill up to see worksheet data in less detail. For example, you might:

• drill up from individual months to see data for the year.

• drill up to consolidate a weekly sales figures into a monthly sales figure.

To drill up to see worksheet data in less detail:

1. Click the drill icon next to the item for which you want to see less detail.

   A drop down menu is displayed showing drill options for that item and indicates the current drill level.

2. From the drop down menu, select the level of detail that you want above the current drill level.

   Discoverer removes detail data from the worksheet.

   Note: Alternatively, to drill up, click the icon next to detail data and choose Collapse.

How to drill out

You drill out to see worksheet data displayed in another application. For example, you might:

• click on an Excel spreadsheet item to display the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel

• click on a HTML item to display the HTML page in an Internet browser

To drill out:

1. Click the item on the worksheet.

2. When prompted by your Internet browser, choose either:
   • to open the file from its current location (the prompt is Internet browser specific)

   • to save the file to a local area - for example, a network drive

   If you choose to open the file, Discoverer starts up the associated application and displays the file.

Examples of drilling

Example 1: In this example, the Region drill icon is selected, then City is selected from the drill options to display city data for each region. If you select the drill icon next to one of the regions (Central, East, or West), you would only drill down on that region.

Figure 8-6 Drilling into a worksheet to display more detail

Text description of the illustration drill6.gif

Example 2: In this example, the drill icon next to the value 'Region' is selected to display the drill menu. Then, the Collapse option is selected to remove the city detail data (i.e. Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas) from the worksheet.

Figure 8-7 Drilling up to display less detail

Text description of the illustration drill7.gif

Example 3: You can drill down on the whole worksheet or selectively for particular areas of a worksheet. In this example, drilling on Year down to Quarter displays more detailed data for all Years (1998, 1999, and 2000).

Figure 8-8 Drilling into a whole worksheet

Text description of the illustration drill4.gif

Example 4: In this example, drilling on 2000 down to Quarter displays more detailed data for the year 2000, but not 1998 or 1999.

Figure 8-9 Drilling selectively into particular area

Text description of the illustration drill5.gif

Example 5: In this example, a text report is stored in the database. Clicking the document icon displays the report in an external application, such as Microsoft Word or a text editor.

Figure 8-10 Drilling out to see a text document

Text description of the illustration drill9.gif