Tech Tuesday: Including Extender Fields in SmartLists using a Calculated Field in SmartList Builder
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Tech Tuesday post today is inspired by real-world events. Every once in a while I see someone who has added a simple field or two using Extender and now wants to include this information in a calculation on a SmartList using SmartList Builder. What happens inevitably is that some of the records may not have a record in the Extender side of things. When you pull the field onto the SmartList you will see that you have a value of 0 (for numbers or blank for strings). The actual value behind the scenes is NULL because there was no record.
The behavior that you see in your calculated field is that a value of 0 or blank will always be returned. You can correct your calculation simply by adding a CASE statement to account for the records that don’t have values. Below you will find a sample:
The behavior that you see in your calculated field is that a value of 0 or blank will always be returned. You can correct your calculation simply by adding a CASE statement to account for the records that don’t have values. Below you will find a sample:
CASE
WHEN ({Extender Window:Value}) IS NULL THEN ({GP Table:Amount} – ({GP Table:Cost}))
ELSE ({GP Table:Amount} – ({GP Table:Cost} + {Extender Window:Value}))
END
The CASE statement in calculated fields can be very helpful to get the desired results in your SmartLists. Have fun with this one and let me know if you have additional ideas for calculated fields you would like to see.
Thanks,
Chris Dew
Director of Product Management
Curious to learn more about SmartList Builder or Extender? Reach out to us at sales@eonesolutions.com.
I have created a smartlist in smartlist builder that has a calculation field. When I run Smartview I am getting an error on this field and it will not bring the smartlist up. It works fine in Smartlist. But I need it in Smartview because of the filtering the data. Why won’t calc fields work in Smartview.
Hi Amy,
You can definitely include calculations built with SmartList Builder into SmartView. Not sure what the error is or how your getting it, but I’ll have the support team follow up with you personal to help as I see an open case for you.
Thanks,
please i need you urgent help, i have create a new report using smart view tool and i have create a new calculation field, and everything is fine on smart view on excel, BUT when i try to publish this report on BI catalog everything has been published except the calculation field, please can anyone help me
thanks,