Insert calculated rows (Reporting Matrix)

Inforiver provides an option to insert calculated rows using an intuitive formula editor. The Excel-like formula engine supports 50+ functions (logical, boolean, math functions, and more). The formula editor provides syntax, examples, and features such as autocomplete, multi-line support, and more to help users create, and troubleshoot formulas.

Refer to the formula syntax section for a detailed list of functions, operators, and identifiers that can be used for calculations.

Let us take this example, where we have sales data by category and subcategory. Let's insert a row for Specialty Beverages, which is calculated as the minimum of the other subcategories in Beverages across quarters.

Select the Tea & Coffee row above which we need to insert the row. In the Insert tab, click on the Insert Row dropdown.

Select the Calculated Row option.

A blank row gets inserted, and a side panel opens up as shown.

You can also create parent rows as calculated rows.

Let's look at the configurations applicable to calculated rows.

1. Formula editor

1.1. Rename the title and click on the formula editor. You can see a list of available functions in the Functions tab.

1.2. As you start typing, Inforiver's IntelliSense narrows down the list of functions to match the entered text. Click on MIN.

1.3. Inforiver displays the syntax for the function. Click on the arrow highlighted.

1.4. Inforiver displays a description of the function and a detailed explanation of the arguments with examples.

1.5. To insert a reference to a particular row, click on the row when the cursor is placed in the formula editor.

1.6. The other way is to use the References tab. To access a child row, e.g., Mineral Water, you need to type 'Water.Mineral Water'. As you start typing, the references get narrowed down. Select 'Water'.

Select 'Mineral Water' from the dropdown.

1.7. The calculated row gets created as shown.

To see the underlying logic for calculated data, click on the cell to preview the formulae applied in the formula bar.

Inserting aggregated rows

While you can use the SUM and AVERAGE functions to calculate the sum and average of rows, respectively, you can also use the Aggregation option from the 'Insert Row' menu.

Select the rows to aggregate. You'll notice that the Insert Sum of rows and Insert Avg of rows options are now enabled in the dropdown.

Enter a name for the row and click Create.

Debugging formulas

Any errors in the formula can be easily located with clear and concise error messages. In the maximized formula editor view, you will also notice line numbers, allowing you to quickly locate and fix errors.

2. Include in total

2.1. Check the Include in total checkbox if we need the Specialty Beverages value to be included in the Beverages total and the grand total. Click Create.

2.2. The row is renamed, and the values are populated. There is also a formula bar at the top, which shows the underlying formula.

Note that the grand total has been updated to 327m from 264m.

2.3. Let's uncheck the Include in total checkbox and click Update.

2.4. You can see that the grand total has now reverted back to the original value of 264m.

3. Include in charts

3.1. Check the Include in charts option and click Update.

The 'Include in charts' checkbox is enabled only when the 'Include in total' option is unchecked.

3.2. Let's now add a bar chart to the 2023Actuals measure. Click on the column and select the highlighted bar chart from the Home tab.

3.3. Notice that the Specialty Beverages row is also visualized using the bar chart.

3.4. When you uncheck the Include in charts option and click Update, you can see that the calculated row is no longer shown in the charts.

4. Evaluate column before rows

When inserting calculated rows, in some cases, you might want the total to be the sum of the child columns, whereas in other cases, it needs to follow the defined formula. This behavior can be configured using the Evaluate column before rows option.

Let's consider an example where we are inserting the relative variance between two rows. In the image below, with Evaluate columns before rows enabled, you can see that the variance for the grand total is calculated based on the grand total values of Pacific and Central.

When Evaluate columns before rows is disabled, the grand total variance is calculated as the sum of the Beverages and Water columns, which is not the expected behavior.

5. Custom scaling

In certain cases, the values in calculated rows may not conform to the number scaling set at the report level. You can apply a custom scaling factor based on the nature of the calculation applied.

6. Bind for Cross filter/RLS

You can enable the Bind for Cross filter/RLS option to ensure that cross-filter selections and RLS settings apply to calculated/manual input rows that reference other rows. For example, a manager handling 'Canada' accounts should only be able to access 'Canada' data. If this option is not enabled, he can view a manually inserted row that references data from other regions(child rows) or an inserted region that is manually created at the visual level(parent rows).

You can bind inserted rows by selecting a reference row or a dimension category.

The images in this section are from Writeback Matrix to show different user views. The functionality is the same.

Binding by selecting a row

Let's consider these RLS rules defined based on regions:

To select a particular reference row, choose Row from the SelectionType dropdown. The Alaska>Velo hierarchy references the Canada row in the example below. Click the Canada row to reference it in the Selected Row field. Only users with access to 'Canada' data will be able to view the Alaska level.

The Alaska hierarchy is displayed only for users with RLS access to Canada data.

Similarly, a user with access to 'France' data will be able to see the Austria level but not the Alaska level.

The user can view Austria and France:

Dimension category

RLS rule defined for product access:

To bind the inserted row to a particular dimension category, choose Dimension member from the SelectionType dropdown. In the example below, the Paseo adjustment row references the Paseo product.