Discoverer 4i report banding

Question

I have a user request for a report in apps version of discoverer. They have a custom set of categories that they create on the fly in oracle 11i FSGs. Basically they have a level of the accounting category set that is no where in the database that they would like to band several reports under. I am trying to authorize the creation of a table that would hold this missing level but I have been asked to find an alternative. The client hierarchy is Cost Center the Account They would like Cost Center Category Account. They have given me a spreadsheet of What Accounts make up a Category. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I could either use a custom folder or calculations that would allow me to total up accts by these banded categories? Any help would be appreciated.
michael

Answer 1

Hi Michael
You can do this with a DECODE.
Let's pretend you need to have these banding ranges (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, over 75) where the numbers are coming from an item called ITEM, use this code:
DECODE(ITEM,LEAST(ITEM,26),'0-25',
LEAST(ITEM,51),'26-50',
LEAST(ITEM,76),'51-75',
'Over 75')
Basically, we have one less LEAST statement for the number of ranges that we want to define. As you may know, DECODE insists on the items being compared based on equality, hence the use of compating the item with the lesser of the item itself or the first higher value outside of the range. Its a bit like using this code...
IF ITEM equals the lesser of the ITEM or 26
THEN include the item in the set called '0-25'
ELSE IF the ITEM equals the lesser of the ITEM or 51
THEN include the item in the set called '26-50).... and so on
To have subgroups, you would create another complex DECODE statement and then use PAGE ITEMS or GROUP SORTING to give you the correct display.
Hope this helps
Regards
Michael