1. Designing with Calculation Manager for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
  2. Using Member Selection, Variables, Functions, Smart Lists, and Planning Formula Expressions to Design Components
  3. Working with Variables
  4. About Variables

About Variables

Variables assume values that you define for them. You use them in components as you design business rules and templates.

You can create variables in the following ways:

  • Click Variable Designer butrton to launch the Variable Designer.
  • Create variables from within a rule, script, formula, or template, anywhere the Variable Selector dialog box is available.

    For example:

    • Open a rule, and then drag in a Member Range component.
    • Click Select button next to a dimension, and then select Variable.
    • In the Select Variable dialog box, click Create to create a variable.

When you create a variable, the variable is created at the level you choose: global, application, plan type, or business rule. If the same named variable is created at each level, the lowest level variable is used in the rule. For example, if you create a Global variable named:vMonth and a plan type variable named Month, the rules will use the variable from the plan type.

There are two types of variables:

  • Execution—When the business rule is launched, the calculation defined for the variable is performed. You can use execution variables in script components or fixed loop components.

  • Replacement—When you are designing or launching the business rule, the variable is substituted within a calculation. You can use replacement variables in any component.

    You can create several types of execution and replacement variables. The variables you can create differ depending on the application type and whether you are creating an execution or a replacement variable.

    Note:

    For non-groovy rules, variables of type member or members are the only supported types of variables for Planning cubes of type Aggregate Storage Option (ASO).

You can create variables that prompt users to enter information when they launch a business rule. These runtime prompt variables prompt users for such information as members, text, dates, or numbers. The prompts tell users what type of data is expected.

For example:

  • Select a month.

  • Enter the expected number of customer visits per quarter.

  • Specify what percentage change in earnings you expect next month.

There are up to four database objects with which you can associate a variable, depending on the application type for which you are creating a variable. A variable can exist in multiple objects simultaneously and can have the same name in each object.