Smart Lists are attribute-like values that are assigned to members, where the actual assignment is stored as data in the Essbase cube for the member (for example, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) and the Planning Repository translates those numbers to textual strings (for example, 0=”Straight Line Depreciation”, 1=” Double Declining Balance”, and so on).
Examples of Financial Reporting support of Smart Lists:
Grids which reference cells in a Planning database which contain Smart Lists will return a string value instead of a number. String values are always shown in the results instead of numbers.
The Text function GetCell() returns the string value instead of a number when it references a cell containing an Smart List.
Using “numeric” comparison operators and string comparison operators (equals, startswith, and so on), Conditional Formatting and Suppression allows selection of any cell (Data, Formula, Text) with the "Cell Value" operand. For example, Conditional Suppression can refer to a data cell which contains a Smart List string and apply Conditional Suppression such as "suppress row if cell value B, 6 starts with 'ABC'".
You can apply conditional formatting and suppression to Workforce Planning or Smart Lists textual data.
When a Smart List string is retrieved from Planning, the string value (for example “Meets”) and numeric values are stored and are available, allowing the following capabilities:
You can conditionally suppress and conditionally format based on either the Smart List string value or the underlying numeric value.
you can sort rows/columns which have Smart List values mixed with numeric data-cell values. When this occurs, the Smart List numeric is used in the comparison with the other numeric cell values.
you can access the Smart List numeric value through a formula reference to the cell. All formula references to smart-list cells operate on the Smart List numeric value.