COGNOiSe.com - The IBM Cognos Community

IBM Cognos 10 Platform => Cognos 10 BI => Report Studio => Topic started by: lots_of_questions on 28 Oct 2016 01:52:55 PM

Title: Variance between columns in a chart
Post by: lots_of_questions on 28 Oct 2016 01:52:55 PM
Hi all,

I am trying to do a simple chart with Budget vs forecast.  I want to display them in two columns without the amount showing.  That part is easy.  I do want the variance amount to display above them.  Something like this I suppose.  (https://www.excelcampus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Variance-on-Column-Chart.png)  but I only need the calculation.

I've tried stacked charts, but I can't only display one of the totals.
I've tried overlapping charts, but can't get it to display correctly.
I've tried markers, but they don't repeat for each category.

Any help is appreciated
Title: Re: Variance between columns in a chart
Post by: stan.parker on 28 Oct 2016 03:17:37 PM
Are you looking for something like this?
Title: Re: Variance between columns in a chart
Post by: lots_of_questions on 31 Oct 2016 07:02:01 AM
What I would like to see is only one value displayed, centered above the two columns.  The value should be the variance between the two columns.  So in your example it would display 1M or so.

Is that possible? 

I can calculated one with a marker, but a marker does not recalculate for each series.
Title: Re: Variance between columns in a chart
Post by: lots_of_questions on 31 Oct 2016 11:59:06 AM
I did find a work around for now.  In the X-axis of the chart, I changed the text source to report expression and added the variance amount.  This ends up displaying the variance at the end of the name.

If anyone has a better idea, I would love to hear it.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Variance between columns in a chart
Post by: Invisi on 03 Nov 2016 11:14:54 AM
I propose that you use a chart that shows the variance only. if you also want to show a chart or charts who show the budgets and actuals. Since these are (more or less) time series, I usually make the base values (the budget and actual) in a line chart with 2 lines (budget line, actual line) and below it a bar chart that shows the variances.