Creating and Editing Formulas in Outlines

  To create or edit a formula:

1. Open the outline in edit mode. 

2. Right-click a dimension or member and select Edit member properties.

3. In the Member Properties dialog box, select the Formula tab.

4. To use aliases instead of member names, select the Use aliases button and, from the Alias table drop-down list, select the desired alias table.

5. On the Script tab on the right, insert the text marker in the desired location to enter formula text.

6. Following formula syntax guidelines, perform an action:

   • Use the keyboard to enter formula text. Enclose in quotation marks any member names containing blanks or special characters.

     In outlines that allow duplicate member names, when typing duplicate member names, you must type the qualified member name in order to differentiate the member from its duplicates. You can view the qualified member name for a duplicate member in the Member Properties dialog box in Outline Viewer. Type the qualified member name enclosed in double quotation marks.

     You can also insert the member name from the outline tree.

   • In the Commands and functions tree, double-click an operator or function. The selected operator or function is inserted in the text area at the text-marker position.

     Select Insert arguments to include arguments in the text area as the command or function is inserted.

   • In the outline tree, double-click member names to insert them in the formula at the text marker position. You can perform Find Members operations to locate members containing specific text you specify.

     In outlines that allow duplicate member names, if you insert a duplicate member, the qualified member name is inserted in the script. For example, if the outline contains two members named New York, if you insert either New York member, the qualified member name is inserted in the script.

   • Paste text from a text editor.

   • Right-clicking in the formula editing pane enables the following tasks:

     • Undoing and redoing previous actions

     • Copying, cutting, and pasting text

     • Selecting all text in the formula

     • Finding or replacing text; repeating a find or a replace operation for the next instance of the same text

     • Going to a line number that you specify.

       The status area of Formula Editor displays the location of the text marker as you move it.

   • At the end of each line, type a semicolon (;).

   • If you want to delete all text from the text area, select Clear.

7. Select Verify to verify the formula.

   You can verify a formula only when connected to an Essbase Server.

   Note:

   You may get outline verification errors during validation for formulas that contain newly added members. Such errors do not prevent saving the outline back to the server, and saving the outline to the server will result in successful formula validation.

8. Click OK to save the formula.

   Note:

   Clicking Next or Prev to move to a different member or selecting a different tab for the current member saves changes made to the formula for the current member.