Is there any way to create a crosstab in Cognos that will display text values in the cells? I need to create a matrix type report with textual values at the intersections of the rows and columns - I've tried this in report studio and with a cube in Analysis studio but can't get the values to display - is there any workaround or creative way to work this?? I've doen a report where I do maximum(if....then...) to get the values to show but each column as to be defiend and I would really like this to be dynamic and ultmiately I need to be able to show multiple values at each intersection and the maximum function is of course preventing that. thanks for any ideas!
Yes and no ;D
A Cognos crosstab only works with an aggregate (numerical) value as the measure. What IS possible is to define a report expression against the aggregate and 'superimpose' this on the crosstab.
We use this in crosstab reports where we plot status codes in time. The limiting factor is that it only works with a distinct set of values as you need to write a case expression in the report expression, like
CASE [somevalue]
when 1 then 'Open'
when 2 then 'Closed'
when 3 then 'Pending'
else '?'
end