Edit Calculation dialog

Use this dialog to edit items and calculated items.

For more information, see:

"What are items?"

"What are calculated items?"

"How to edit calculated items"

For example:

• to change the name or description of an item

• to change the name of a calculated item

• to amend the formula in a calculated item

Show

Use these radio buttons to display calculations, functions, and item that you can use to build a calculation. To include items in the calculation, paste them into the Calculation field.

• Items

  Use this radio button to display the EUL items available.

• Functions

  Use this radio button display the functions available.

Paste

Use this button to the add the item currently selected in the Show list to the Calculation. The item is copied into the Calculation field.

Name

Use this field to edit the name of the item or calculated item.

Calculation

Use this field to enter the calculation details (for calculation examples, see Oracle Application Server Discoverer Plus User's Guide).

To create a calculation, you one or more of the following methods:

• Type the formula directly into the Calculation field.

  Note: If you type an expression in the Calculation field, you must prefix the expression with an equals sign (i.e. =). For example, '=Sales SUM-Costs SUM'.

• Paste items and functions from the Show field on the left into the calculation.

• Click the operator buttons underneath the Calculation field to use them in the calculation.

Operator buttons + - x / % ( )

Use these buttons to add operators to the calculation. Operators are copied into the Calculation field.

Note: When you use arithmetic expressions in a calculation, the multiply and divide operators are executed first, regardless of their position in the calculation. If you have more than one operator of the same precedence, they are evaluated from left to right.

For example, the calculation Price - Discount * Quantity is evaluated as Discount*Quantity subtracted from Price. If you use parentheses around the subtraction expression (Price - Discount), the subtraction is executed before the multiplication.

OK

Use this button to validate and save the calculation, as follows:

• If the calculation has valid syntax, the calculation is saved and displayed in the Calculations dialog.

• If the calculation has invalid syntax, an error message is displayed. You must correct any syntax errors before you can save the calculation.

Notes

• The table below shows the functions available in the field beneath the Show field:

  Category	Description
  All Functions	An alphabetical list of all functions.
  Analytic	Advanced statistical analysis, such as RANK, NTILE, CORR.
  Conversion	Converting from one data type to another, such as: RAWTOHEX, TO_CHAR, TO_DATE.
  Database	Optional category that is displayed when user defined functions are available (created using the Register PL/SQL Functions facility on the Tools menu).
  Date	Manipulating date items such as ADD_MONTHS, NEW_TIME, SYSDATE and NEXTDATE.
  Group	Aggregate and statistical functions including SUM, COUNT, MAX, MIN, VARIANCE.
  Numeric	Numeric items, transcendentals and floating point such as COS, LOG, MOD, POWER.
  Others	Miscellaneous functions such as LEAST, USER, DECODE, ROWNUM.
  String	Character items, text operations such as INITCAP, LPAD, NLS_UPPER.

• For detailed information about all functions available in Discoverer, see Oracle8i/9i SQL Reference and Oracle8i/9i Data Warehousing Guide.

• For examples of the most commonly used functions, see Oracle Application Server Discoverer Plus User's Guide.