Is there a way to break the items down of a D-List using Analyst?

[kashif]

I am currently using Cognos Planning 8.4.  In Analyst we have a d-list that has item names as per below:

D-list Item Names
100_400000_F_UA010 Coco Pops
100_400000_F_UA020 Shreddies

I am looking to break this down using another d-list which has the following e-list names:

D-list Item Names
Func
Account
Indicator
Material
Name

Now the first D-list Item name has all the information but it's concatenated, and I would like to break that information as can be seen below:
               
Item Name                             Func   Account   Indicator   Material   Name
100_400000_F_UA010 Coco Pops   100     400000        F             UA010   Coco Pops
100_400000_F_UA020 Shreddies    100     400000        F             UA020   Shreddies

Is anyone aware of how this can be done in Analyst?

[craig_karr]

I don't know how to do that in Analyst, but if you have Excel, it is very easy to just copy the  items from the first dlist to Excel and then use the text functions in Excel to create a column with the items you want in the second dlist and then just paste it into the second dlist

[shouldknowbetter]

If you want to do this as a one-off, then go for the Excel option above. If this needs to be a repeatable routine, then export the information to a text file using the export options, then set a file map over the top of the text file. In that file map you can split up the data as you want, then you will be able to set up new d-links over this file map, and then set up a link over this file map to import the new data.

Once set up, this can be repeated or put in a macro.

If the data is coming from outside of Analyst to start with (which seems likely) then don't bother bringing it in and exporting it, just start by setting a file map over the external data.

Hope this helps,

[kashif]

Thanks for the replies. 

It is going to be a repeatable task and so a one off excel exercise won't work.

I am considering the idea of creating the .txt file and then using it as a file map.  However this process seems really long even with the creation of a macro.  I was hoping there was a simpler d-link method which could produce this within Analyst using Analyst. 

However if this isn't possible then I'll stick with the file map option.

Thanks again.

[shouldknowbetter]

There really isn't another way within Analyst. The screen where you break the column down only appears within File Map, and that is only available to use over a TXT or CSV file. Once set up it will be quite fast to run, depending on how long your list is.

Good luck,

Paul