Proven Practice

Guidelines to setting up and using look-up tables

Product(s): IBM Cognos Controller 10

Area of Interest: Financial Management

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 4

PURPOSE 4

APPLICABILITY ..................................................................................................................... 4

EXCLUSIONS AND EXCEPTIONS ................................................................................................. 4

LOOKUP TABLES - DEFINING ................................................................................... 5

DEFINITION ........................................................................................................................ 5

CREATING A NEW LOOKUP TABLE .............................................................................................. 5

FROM COLUMN ..................................................................................................................... 6

TO COLUMN ........................................................................................................................ 6

OTHER: 6

LOOKUP TABLES - EDIT ............................................................................................ 7

DEFINITION ........................................................................................................................ 7

MANUAL ENTRY IN LOOKUP TABLES ........................................................................................... 7

IMPORTING LOOKUP TABLES FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES .................................................................. 7

VALIDATING THE LOOKUP TABLE ............................................................................................... 8

COPYING LOOKUP TABLES ....................................................................................... 8

COPYING 8

ADDING LOOKUP TABLES TO IMPORT SPECIFICATION .......................................... 9

SOLUTION: ......................................................................................................................... 9

LOOKUP TABLES - SAMPLES ................................................................................... 11

SAMPLE 1 – IMPORTING GENERAL BALANCES FOR ACCOUNTS THAT HAVE EITHER DIMENSIONALITY OR NO

DIMENSIONALITY ................................................................................................................ 11

SAMPLE 2 – HOW TO USE LOOKUP TABLE ON AN IMPORT SPECIFICATION FILE ..................................... 11

SAMPLE 3 – HOW DO USE THE LOOKUP FACTOR ON THE OPERATIONS OF AN IMPORT SPECIFICATION FILE ... 12

LOOKUP TABLES - SECURITY ................................................................................. 13

SECURITY FEATURES ........................................................................................................... 13

OTHER DOCUMENT ................................................................................................. 13

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Introduction

Purpose

Lookup tables are used to convert information in a file from another system into Controller keys. Define lookup tables under Transfer/External Data/Define Lookup tables

Applicability

Controller 8.2 or higher

Exclusions and Exceptions

This document is applicable based on the current configuration of lookup tables; if additional fields are added to lookup option then something of this information may not apply to future releases.

-NB- Lookup tables will not work with staging tables for controller versions lower than 8.3.

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Lookup Tables - Defining

Definition

Lookup tables are used to convert information in a file from another system into Controller keys. Define lookup tables under Transfer/External Data/Define Lookup tables

You can get information from lookup tables using the operations LOOKUP, LOOKUP FACTOR and LOOKUPSPLIT in a predefined operations template. A single lookup table can be used by several different import specifications.

Creating a new Lookup Table

a) To create a new lookup table, click New. Indicate an identity for the table no more than seven characters long. You can also describe the table in general terms using text.

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From Column

• Interval indicates a table with two from column/columns

• Numeric indicates numeric values in the From column/columns

• Uppercase indicates that only uppercase characters can be used in the From column/columns

• Width is the maximum number of characters for elements used in the From column/columns.

• Included a Description column adds an additional column/columns to the selected element in the DB.

• Cognos Controller Object validates the From column/columns to the selected element in the DB.

To Column

• Numeric indicates numeric values in the To Column

• Uppercase indicates that only uppercase characters can be used in the From column/columns

• Width is the maximum number of a characters for elements used in the from column/columns

• Include a Description column adds an additional column/columns to the selected element in the DB.

• Cognos Controller Object validates the From column/columns to the selected element in the DB.

Other:

• Factor adds an additional column for a factor to be applied during the import.

• Duplicates allowed indicates that the same From element can be used with several different To elements

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Lookup Tables - Edit

Definition

Once you have created a lookup table, you should enter values in the table. You do so by selecting the menu option

Manual Entry in Lookup Tables

The first method is to manually enter data directly in to the lookup table. To do this, open the lookup table and simply type the information in the fields.

Importing Lookup Tables from External Sources

The second method allows the import of a predefined lookup table prepared as a text file with the same format as the lookup table. This text file can be in a fixed or separated format. Use the button below to open the import dialog.

In the import dialog, you need to select the file, whether it is fixed or separated format and, if needed, what character is used as a separator. Then simply use the mouse to mark the FROM information and the TO information. You may also be required to enter a factor if this option was checked in the define lookup table

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See below sample data:

Validating the lookup table

After you have enter or loaded data into the lookup table then you should check to see if table is valid by selecting the below green arrow.

Copying lookup tables

Copying

• Select the lookup table you want to copy from the Lookup Tables list box

• Click the Save as. The save as dialog box opens

• Enter the name of the new lookup table and click ok. The new lookup table is added to the list and contains the same settings as the one you copied.

Tip

• Before you save, you can click the Check button to check if there are any errors in the definition of the lookup table.

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Adding Lookup Tables to Import Specification

Solution:

• On fields tab of the import specification – you would change the specific field (accounts, for illustrative purposes) to an operation. The operation must created first. The Operation template would be name _Account and would have two lines in it. 1. Getitem – this would indicate which column in our import file has source value. 2. Lookup – this were you indicate the lookup table to use and the action to take the account is not located.

• The account field would use the Operation _Account. By choosing the action – ON NOT MATCH EXCLUDE you are ignoring all rows that have an account not found on the lookup table. See below example

Example of lookup operation. The field uses an Operation Template (which must be defined first – see below)

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The operation is defined to take item number 2 from the file (comma delimited file) and pass that value through the lookup table. If it is not found, exclude it.

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Lookup Tables - Samples

Sample 1 – Importing General balances for accounts that have either dimensionality or no dimensionality

• Column#5 has department code 0, which is not a valid department, but the other numbers are valid. We want to import this data into controller and want to use a lookup table

Sample 2 – How to use lookup table on an import specification file

Scenario:

You ignore items not set up in the lookup table

Solution:

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You can create the field to retrieve the value from the database, and then translate it using the lookup table. If the value is not found in the database, you can indicate this should be excluded. Excluded transactions do not become discarded transactions – they are discard rows. Discarded transactions are ones that should have been imported, but could not due to some error – you can find information in the log report.

Steps:

• On fields tab of your import specification – you would change the specific field (accounts, for this illustrative purposes) to an Operation. The operation must be created first.

• The operation would be named _Account and would have two lines in it. Getitem is the first. This would indicate which column in our import has source value. The next item LOOKUP and there you indicate which lookup table to use, and the action to take if the account is not located.

• The account field use the operation _account template. By choosing the action – ON NO MATCH EXCLUDE is where you are ignoring all rows that have an account not found on the lookup table.

Sample 3 – How do use the lookup factor on the operations of an import specification file

Solution

The amount field is using an operation _Amount. The _Amount operation takes the value from the file, and multiplies it by the @FACTOR (Temp field). The temp field @FACTOR is sent through an operation - _Factor. The Operation _Factor retrieves the account from the file, and uses the lookup table to determine the fact – converts the Account number to a factor of 1, 0, -1.

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Lookup Tables - Security

Security Features

You have the option to set read or write options on lookup tables.

Other document

See also guidelines to importing data using lookup splits