How to change the column value names in OBIEE

DollyG

Hi,

Anyone can please tell me how to change the names of Column value in OBIEE

Suppose I have a Column Debt in a table in DB. Debt values in DB are: Tech_Debt and Tech_Debt,Arch_Debt.

I have create a column prompt for Debt. So, I want that prompt values should display some user friendly values like Technical Debt instead of TECH_DEBT and Architectural Debt instead of TECH_DEBT,ARCH_DEBT. Can anyone please tell me, how can I achieve this in OBIEE?

Martin van Donselaar

You should prefarably not solve this in OBIEE Answers reports , especially if you need this in more then one report.

You should best create some description/translation column or lookup tables in your database.  See: https://www.rittmanmead.com/blog/2010/08/oracle-bi-ee-11g-lookup-tables-sparse-and-dense-lookups/

The dirty solution is to use case statements in your answer reports: CASE WHEN "Debt" = 'Tech_Debt' then 'Technical Debt' WHEN 'Arch_Debt' THEN 'Architectural Debt'  ELSE 'Unknow Description'  END.

Gianni Ceresa

Hi, you can do it with a CASE WHEN. It will work but it's not really the right way to "fix this". You are supposed to have the "friendly" value in the DB directly, maybe in a lookup table if you don't want to add a "friendly" column to the table itself.

If you implement a CASE WHEN in OBIEE you better do it in the RPD at least everywhere it will be consistent.

If you decide to do it directly in the front-end then you need to make sure to use the same exact formula all the time (between prompt and analysis columns) or they will just act as independent things.

EDIT: spending too long to write and Martin was faster

Martin van Donselaar

If you want to use Prompts on the translated you should create a description column with the case statement in the repository so you can use a column prompt on that.

Martin van Donselaar

At least we gave the same advice ;-)

Robert Angel

The usual way is to rename your columns to user friendly equivalents in the business model layer, before exposing them to the end user. There is a wizard under tools that facilitates rapid / mass rename using rules - but note my caveat of before exposing it to the end user, as if the columns are already in use then the report will error on being opened if you rename them.

If it is too late for before you might want to look at aliases on the presentation layer columns.

Thomas Dodds

Build a code/value, name/description table ... a lookup table in your database.  Then model the lookup in the RPD.

DollyG

Thanks all for your answers!

I have implemented it successfully

2709444

Did you use a lookup table or CASE WHEN @DollyG? Can you please let us know how did you resolve it?

DollyG

Hi,

I have used CASE WHEN statement and it worked that way!