How to slice a data cube in Birt designer?

Question

I created a data cube in Birt designer with the following data :

• Measure : turnover
• Dimensions : product, location and time

I have now a three-dimensional OLAP data cube I want to display in a two-dimensional array.

My problem here is I don't know how to assign a constant value for one dimension (for example : product = "computer" or time = "2014")

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways to do this. In terms of performance, the most efficient one would be to add a parameter to the main dataset of the cube and filter here.

If you can't filter in the dataset (for example if other report elements make use of the third datacube dimension), another option is:

• Add the dimension you want to slice as a first column dimension of the crosstab, such "Product line" dimension of the screen below.
• Add a cross-tab filter and set an expression filtering on this dimension, for example by filtering on the value of a report parameter or on a constant value
• Facultative, if you don't want it to be displayed: select the value of the dimension in the crosstab (just click "PRODUCTLINE" label in this example) and turn the visibility property to "hide".