Excluding Columns from Report based on Condition

Shams Abbasi

Hello Experts,

We got a requirement where users didn't wanted to see the following statement,

So we added few null entries in the database, now we don't get this message instead we see null columns. Now the users are asking me to remove null columns when there is data in the reports and add them again when there are no results. I tried writing some case statements in filters but it didn't work, can i please get guidance on how i can achieve this.

Thanks!!

Pedro F

Maybe it's because of the late hour but I'm having issues understanding your problem. You have a custom "No Results" message that will be displayed whenever your analysis don't return results. However, you're saying that users don't want to see that message and you create null entries in the database to display instead of the message? Not really following what you did here.

I'd suggest you put a few screenshots to better illustrate what you did and you may get more answers that way.

Shams Abbasi

Pedro,

Below is the screenshots,

What my analysis will look without null entries.

How it looks with null values,

Now the business is asking that the null values should not come when there is data present in the condition. It should show when there are no results. Please let me know if you need more clarification.

Shams Abbasi

Can i please get help with this issue

[Deleted User]

Your issue is that the initial "requirement" isnt a requirement but ignorance and unwillingness to learn.

Your second issue is that you created a situation where your "implementation of the requirement" made things worse.

Because 0 (the number) is a TOTALLY different result than NULL and in any analytical, financial and and just mathematical...it's plain and simply WRONG.

If I have no Benefit for USA because I dont do business there then Benefit is NULL.

If I sell for 5million but have costs of 5 milliom then the Benefit is ZERO, the number 0.

So treating NULL and 0 is wrong.

Your third issue is that you seem to be missing the point that Pedro already gave you the solution: "You can customize the No Results view!"

Shams Abbasi

Your issue is that the initial "requirement" isnt a requirement but ignorance and unwillingness to learn.

We have configured OBIEE to SSO through O365 and users see these reports on O365 pages, i dont think there is ignorance here it is just a fact that no results  view is not what is expected to be seen on a page where everything else is customized and has high visuals.

Your second issue is that you created a situation where your "implementation of the requirement" made things worse.
Because 0 (the number) is a TOTALLY different result than NULL and in any analytical, financial and and just mathematical...it's plain and simply WRONG.

If I have no Benefit for USA because I dont do business there then Benefit is NULL.
If I sell for 5million but have costs of 5 milliom then the Benefit is ZERO, the number 0.
So treating NULL and 0 is wrong.

I agree to what you say, although in an example where there is a warehouse [1]. Now when the warehouse has 6 products my reports Show Status of [1] as 6. When the warehouse has no products(null) my reports show Status of [1] as 0 in which case null is 0.I did this because in one report i have multiple pages where each page represent a warehouse.

Example :

Now if i don't do that 0 will be replaced by long no results error.

Your third issue is that you seem to be missing the point that Pedro already gave you the solution: "You can customize the No Results view!"

I saw that message although what i am expecting is a way to apply conditional filter to my analysis which get applied when COUNT(PRODUCT_NUMBER) < 0

so filter will look like this

PRODUCT_NUMBER is NOT NULL WHEN COUNT(PRODUCT_NUMBER) > 0 else PRODUCT_NUMBER is NULL.

i wanted to know is there a way we can do something like this in filters so filters get applied only when the condition is met.

[Deleted User]

Still no reason to fake data if you have a minimum of two alternatives: "outer joins modelling" in the RPD and "Include NULL Values" in the analyses.

Shams Abbasi

will outer join and include Null give you results if there is no data after applying filters?

By No results i mean not even nulls