Grouping and summarizing report data

Grouping and summarizing the source data

The data source contains both analytical columns and value columns. Any request of the data causes a grouping of the analytical columns and summing of the value columns.
Let’s make a simple example. We need a report with ‘Actual data’ type. ‘Actual data’ source is the day by day timesheets information with all the analytics. However, when a user builds a report, all the data will be grouped:
‘Project (Name)’ column is an analytical column, while ‘Hours Total’ is the value. The final set of data will be grouped by the name of the project and summed by the hours.
In case if the user adds ‘User (Name)’ column, the report will look as follows:

While setting a report, it’s recommended to select only important analytics or limit the data with filters in order to decrease the size of the report. For example, one can show detailed information about the employee by showing ‘Date’ and ‘Comment’ columns. It’s recommended to choose a specific period or add different criteria in order to limit the size of the report.

Total results for columns

Each column can be used to show the total result. The number of totals functions depends on a specific type of column:

Grouping the pivot table

The rows of the pivot table can be grouped too. Let’s take a look at the report without grouping:

Row grouping

Let’s choose row grouping in the view settings:

As a result, the rows of the report are grouped by the department:
  • Rows are marked with bold and show the total result for the group.
  • Groups can be expanded and collapsed with [-] and [+] buttons.
  • The system supports multi-level grouping.

Column grouping

Let’s choose the column grouping by month in the view settings:
As a result, the columns are grouped by months:

  • Groups can be expanded and collapsed with [-] and [+] buttons.
  • The system supports multi-level grouping.
  • The totals group is added by default.

Columns with values and aggregation

Unlike the source’s value columns, which are fixed, pivot’s value columns in view can be chosen during the process of setting.
In case if the user adds a column without numeric values, the system will use aggregation by the count of objects. For example, the following report shows the number of unique users, who used timesheets to track their working time.