Drilldown and cyclical groups

[datanibbler]

Hi,

I am just doing the self-learning course "First steps" and currently I'm doing the exercises on cyclical and drilldown groups. Both of those are very practical - even more practical is the possibility of combining both: I can create a cyclical group (first dimension) and add a drilldown group (second dimension) - the y-axis displays turnover. Then I can cycle through the figures by_vendor or  by_country and in each case I get all the years in which there was any turnover by that vendor or in that country and I can subsequently drill down into that year's quarters and into that quarter's months.

The only remaining headache is that I'm still bound to predefined drilldown paths - but as I can easily create as many of those as I want, that's only a very small pain.

The second point - I guess that can be fixed in the settings for the diagram itself - is that when I combine a cyclical and a drilldown group and I select e.g. Mongolia, then I am instantly shown two quarters, no year - I need another diagram or listbox where I can actually see that the year is 2008 and no other year is available. In those cases, it would be more than practical if the year - generally speaking, the previous selections in the drilldown functionality of the diagram - was displayed. Of course, that can easily be arranged by adding a statusbox to the worksheet - but can it also be done in the diagram itself?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

DataNibbler

[datanibbler]

[Continued]

Now I've also done an exercise on groups of formulas and of course I'm trying what possibilities I have of combining formula groups with cyclical groups and/or drilldown groups. When doing that, I'm getting some unexpected results, but I guess that can be resolved, like most things, by logical thinking.

Another question is, is this advisable at all - combining cyclical and drilldown groups and formula groups - or should I rather use several diagrams, e.g. one by vendor with a drilldown in time and one by country with a drilldown in time?

What are the implications for resource_usage and performance, if any?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

DataNibbler