Creating Asymmetric Reports

Essbase reports can contain symmetric or asymmetric column groups. Essbase determines the symmetry of column groups automatically, based on the members you select.

Symmetric reports, as shown in Figure 53, Symmetric Report, are characterized by repeating, identical groups of members.

Figure 53. Symmetric Report

The report shows Qtr1, Qtr2, and Qtr3 members nested under both Budget and Actual. Budget and Actual are nested under both East and West dimensions.

Asymmetric reports, as shown in Figure 54, Asymmetric Report, are characterized by groups of nested members that differ by at least one member. There can be a difference in the number of members or in the names of members.

Figure 54. Asymmetric Report

The report shows Qtr1, Qtr2, and Qtr3 members nested under both Budget and Actual under East dimension but only under Actual for the West dimension.

You can create asymmetric reports as follows:

Enter member names in free-form mode.
Zoom in with Within Selected Group selected on the Member Options page of the Options dialog box.
Suppress rows that contain missing values, zero values, or underscore characters during data retrievals.

Note:

Retrieving data into an asymmetric report may take a long time on large reports.