Assigning Members Using Functions

You can use functions to select members dynamically. After you select a function, you can edit its parameters. For more information on the dynamic use of functions, see Using the Formula Bar. For more information on editing function parameters, see Editing Functions.

Table 16 and Table 17 describe the functions used to assign members.

Note:

Except where noted, all functions listed are supported for Oracle Essbase and Planning Details. Supported functions for Financial Management (HFM), SAP-BW and SSAS are noted in separate columns.

Table 16. Functions Available Through Member Selection and the Formula Bar  

Function

Syntax

Financial Management (HFM)

SAP BW and SSAS

Description

Children

Children of member (Inclusive)

x

x

The members one level below the specified parent

Descendants

Descendants of member (Inclusive)

x

x

The members at all levels below the specified parent

BottomOfHierarchy

Bottom of Hierarchy dimension

x

 

All Level 0 members

Siblings

Siblings of member (Inclusive)

x

x

The members with the same parent as the specified member

OnSameLevelAs

Same level as member

  

The members from the same dimension and on the same level as the specified member

SameLevelAs  xAll members of the same level.

OfSameGeneration

Same generation as member

  

The members of the same dimension and generation as the specified member

Parent

Parent of member (Inclusive)

x

x

The member one level above the specified member

TopOfHierarchy

Top of Hierarchy dimension

x

 

The top-level member of hierarchy

SystemMemberList

System-defined Member List Lev(n),dimension

x

 

The members in a specified system-defined member list

Ancestors

Ancestors of member (Inclusive)

x

x

The members at all levels above the specified member

AllMembers

All Members in Hierarchy dimension

x

 

The members of the specified dimension

Member

member

x

x

The specified member

Members

  

x

All members of the current dimension

Base

Base members of Hierarchy dimension

x

 

The base or level 0 members of a hierarchy. Base Member function is only available for Financial Management, and is not supported for Essbase and Planning. For Essbase and Planning, use BottomOfHierarchy AND Descendants functions.

UserDefined1

All members where user defined is selected attribute

x

 

Supported in Financial Management only. All entities and custom dimensions can be used with the following exceptions: View, ICP, Year, Period, Scenario. The members of selected attribute

UserDefined2

All members where user defined is selected attribute

x

 

Supported in Financial Management only. All entities and custom dimensions can be used with the following exceptions: View, ICP, Year, Period, Scenario. The members of selected attribute

UserDefined3

All members where user defined is selected attribute

x

 

Supported in Financial Management only. All entities and custom dimensions can be used with the following exceptions: View, ICP, Year, Period, Scenario. The members of selected attribute

The member functions listed in the following table can be selected from the Functions tab through member selection. They cannot, however, be entered dynamically in the formula bar.

Table 17. Functions Available Only Through Member Selection  

Function

Description

Property

Used with Oracle Essbase and Planning Details only. Extracts the members with the specified property value.

UserMemberList

Used with Oracle Essbase only. The members in a specified user-defined member list

Match

Used with Financial Management, Oracle Essbase and Planning Details. The members that match a specified pattern or set of characters.

Note:

When using the ‘*’ wildcard with Planning, the pattern may only contain one *, and it may only appear as the last character.

CommonChildren

Used with Financial Management only. This function is valid for the common members in the Entity dimension only. For example, with the following structure:

Parent1

ChildA

ChildB

ChildC

Parent2

ChildA

ChildB

ChildD

The common children function replaces the Member with the Parent. In this example, the Member is Parent1 and the Parent is Parent2. Therefore, the result of using the CommonChildren function in this example would be the following output:

Parent2.ChildA

Parent2.ChildB

Parent2.ChildC

This is the children of Parent1 with Parent2 now substituted as the parent. In this example, since ChildA and ChildB are children of Parent2 the result for these two would be valid. However, the result for Parent2.ChildC is not really valid and would return nothing.

  

PeriodOffset

Used with a Financial Management database connection only. This function enables you to perform arithmetic offset on only the Period dimension.

Note:

Arithmetic offset is the distance to move forward or backward from a specified level.

For example, to list this data:

Current Qtr Next Month

you set the parameters as follows:

Member = Current POV

Offset = +1

Hierarchy = Dim

Note:

PeriodOffset always spans the period and year combination. Therefore, if you select Jan offset -2 (assuming the year is 2002), the answer (member shown) would be Nov 2001.

RelativeMember

Lead — using SSAS or SAP BW, returns the current and next members relative to the selected member.

Lag — using SSAS or SAP BW, returns the current and previous members relative to the selected member.

Used for all dimensions with Oracle Essbase and Planning Details database connections. This function is also available for the Year dimension with a Financial Management database connection. This function enables you to perform arithmetic offset.

Note:

Arithmetic offset is the distance to move forward or backward on a specified level.

For example, with an Oracle Essbase database connection, to list this data:

Current Qtr Next Month

you set the parameters as follows:

Member = Current Point Of View

Offset = +1

Hierarchy = Year

RelativeMemberList = Lev0, Year

UseFirstDescendant = checked

Note:

In this example, UseFirstDescendant = checked causes the system to start from the first descendant of Qtr1, which is Jan. The offset is +1, which makes the Next Month = Feb.

If the current POV = Qtr1, the result is as follows:

Current Qtr Next Month

Qtr1 Feb

Note:

When using a time dimension, keep the offset in the same calendar year as the specified level. For example, if you start with June, you can offset back to January or forward to December.

For a Financial Management database connection, to list this data:

Year Next Year

you set the parameters as follows:

Year = Current Point Of View for Year

Offset = +1

Hierarchy = Year

If the current Point of View = Year, the result is as follows:

Current Year Next Year

2003 2004

DynamicMemberList

Used with Financial Management database connection only. This function enables you to select a member list that is defined to support dynamic POV on the Entity dimension. DynamicMemberList is based on a POV, and takes Entity and Parent (optional) as parameters, If the Parent parameter is specified, the Parent name is used for all entities returned from the enumeration of the list. If the Parent parameter is not specified, then no substitution is done.

Entity is based on the Scenario, Year, and Period defined at the POV level. Therefore, the system will not use Scenario, Year, and Period on the grid. If you place Scenario, Year, or Period on the grid, the following message is displayed: “5200: Error executing query: Scenario, year, and period must be specified on the point of view for a dynamic member list.”

Note:

The DynamicMemberList can be executed from the Lists tab or Functions tab. On the Lists tab, you begin by selecting a (dynamic) list, then adding the Entity and Parent parameters. On the Functions tab, you begin by selecting the DynamicMemberList function, then selecting a dynamic list (DynamicNamedGroup), Entity, and Parent.

Dynamic Time Series Members

The following eight Dynamic Time Series members can be defined within Oracle Essbase. Only Dynamic Time Series members that are defined in the Oracle Essbase database are displayed in the Functions tab of the Select Members dialog box in Financial Reporting.

  • H-T-D History-to-date

  • Y-T-D Year-to-date

  • S-T-D Season-to-date

  • P-T-D Period-to-date

  • Q-T-D Quarter-to-date

  • M-T-D Month-to-date

  • W-T-D Week-to-date

  • D-T-D Day-to-date

These members provide up to eight levels of period-to-date reporting. How many members you use, and which members, depends on your data and database outline.

Note:

These members are used only with time-based dimensions and the lowest-level data. You can view H-T-D, Q-T-D, and M-T-D Dynamic Time Series members on the Functions tab if you select the Year dimension for the Sample application and Basic database.

For more information on Dynamic Time Series members, see the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator's Guide, Volume 1.

Substitution Variables

Stored in a directory for the selected dimension in the Select Members dialog box, substitution variables serve as placeholders for information that changes regularly. A variable value can be changed at any time by the Oracle Essbase administrator. These are useful for reports that depend on reporting periods. With a substitution variable, such as CurMnth, set on the server, you can change the assigned value each month to the time period.

Note:

The list of available Oracle Essbase substitution variables displayed in the Member Selection dialog is obtained when you start the Financial Reporting Report Client. If you add a new substitution variable using the Oracle Essbase Application Manager, you must restart the Report Client to see the addition. Anytime you run a report, the latest values for all Oracle Essbase substitution variables are used. You can view a CurrMonth substitution variable member on the Members tab if you select the Year dimension for the Sample application and Basic database. A substitution variable is preceded by a green square.

For more information on substitution variables, see the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator's Guide Volume 1.

SuppressSharedMember

For Oracle Essbase and Planning Details only, suppress the display of duplicate members. This function is only valid with the following functions: DIMBOTTOM, OFSAMEGEN, or ONSAMELEVELAS.

Note:

Use UNION and not AND to work correctly.

Range

For Oracle Essbase, SAP BW, SSAS, and Planning Details database connections, you can specify a range of members by selecting a start member and an end member of the range. For example, you can use the Year dimension to specify all months in the first quarter by selecting January as the start member of the range and March as the end member.

For Financial Management, the Range function applies only to the Period dimension. For example, if you want to list this data:

Beginning Period Ending Period

for a range of members in the current quarter, you set the parameters as follows:

Start Member = July

End Member = September

Years to Iterate Over = 0

The number of iterations you specify determines the number of times you pass through the Period dimension. For example, if you specify 1 for the Years to Iterate Over parameter, the report spans July to September of the following year.

Note:

Do not use a Prompt and a Range function in the same grid when the Range function also includes Prompts.

  

OrderBy

For Planning Details database connection only, you can specify the order of members that come back from member selection by a member property.

The OrderBy function comprises two required parameters:

  • Property - Provides the Member Name option and a list of all properties available for members. Name is the default.

  • Direction - Provides the options for directions: Ascending, Descending, Hierarchy Ascending, Hierarchy Descending.

The OrderBy function applies to all member selections in the Selected list.

DimBottom

For SSAS only, the bottom level members of a dimension.

SortHierarchy

For Web Analysis only, sort members in outline order, by hierarchy. It is translated into Essbase report script command <sortHierarchy. See Essbase documentation for details.

  To assign members using functions:

  1. Open a report.

  2. Double-click a dimension cell for which you want to assign members using functions.

  3. In the Select Members dialog box, select the Functions tab.

  4. Highlight one or more functions.

    Note:

    Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting multiple functions.

  5. Click the Add button, Right Arrow icon, to open the Edit (name) Function dialog box.

    Note:

    The Edit (name) Function dialog box is not displayed for functions that do not require parameter values, such as BottomofHierarchy, TopofHierarchy, AllMembers, and SuppressSharedMembers.

  6. Double-click the Value column inside row 1, then edit its value by clicking the Lookup button.

    Note:

    Since the Value field for an SSAS data source is populated with the Key instead of member name, for ease of use, we recommend you use the Lookup button to select members.

    Tip:

    You can resize the columns using the arrows that appear when you hover the cursor over the column dividers that display between categories.

  7. Repeat steps step 2 through step 6 to edit the remaining rows.

  8. Click OK.

  9. Click OK to return to your report.