Does anyone have a document that explains Filters?

[ebounds1]

I've been looking around for some additional references or explanations on the Functions used in Cognos and I can't seem to find anything.  Does anyone have any documents that you'd be willing to share or books that you would recommend that I buy?  The existing "tips" available in Cognos are not very helpful and I would love to find something with real world examples for what each one does and how to combine them as I find that the single most confusing thing about Cognos! I spend a ton of time trying to figure out the right ways to filter my data because a lot of times, I'm not understanding the correct functions that I should use...and don't even get me started on how confusing the "error" messages are when I validate the expressions that I put together!   ::)

For reference, this is my first post and I am employed for a company that uses UltiPro with the Business Intelligence/Cognos reporting package (version 10).  I have not had any training on using the tool aside from what has been provided by Ultimate software, though if my company were willing to pay for the IBM training, I would jump at the chance to take it. 

Thanks for any help that could be provided!   :)

[BigChris]

Hi EB - are you using a relational model or a dimensional one? I find filtering on relational data to be quite simple, but dimensional thinking take a bit more getting used to.

[MFGF]

I've been looking around for some additional references or explanations on the Functions used in Cognos and I can't seem to find anything.  Does anyone have any documents that you'd be willing to share or books that you would recommend that I buy?  The existing "tips" available in Cognos are not very helpful and I would love to find something with real world examples for what each one does and how to combine them as I find that the single most confusing thing about Cognos! I spend a ton of time trying to figure out the right ways to filter my data because a lot of times, I'm not understanding the correct functions that I should use...and don't even get me started on how confusing the "error" messages are when I validate the expressions that I put together!   ::)

For reference, this is my first post and I am employed for a company that uses UltiPro with the Business Intelligence/Cognos reporting package (version 10).  I have not had any training on using the tool aside from what has been provided by Ultimate software, though if my company were willing to pay for the IBM training, I would jump at the chance to take it. 

Thanks for any help that could be provided!   :)

Hi,

I think (hope) the Report Studio User Guide might come to your rescue here! :)

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/documentation/docs/en/10.2.2/ug_cr_rptstd.pdf

Take a look at Appendix F - it covers all the syntax you can use in the expression editor and explains each piece - with examples.

Cheers!

MF.

[ebounds1]

MF, thank you so much!  That's definitely a great start and I'll look at it more closely.  I can do the simple expressions but when I need to add in more than one data item into it, I have trouble getting them to work accurately or validate.  I'm looking forward to reading through the document and seeing what I can learn!  Thanks again!

[phantomluvs]

EB,

in Addition to the material suggested, you can also refer this link.

http://unofficialcognostraining.blogspot.com/2008/04/prompts-explained.html

[bdbits]

I have also found this PDF a handy reference for dimensional functions. It is similar to the Report Studio guide, though.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/page82.html