View

Overview

A view is a tool for analyzing and presenting data. Following is a description of the aspects and features of a view.

Table

A view is based on a table. Although the view can include data from related tables, the table on which the view is based upon is always part of the view. There can be multiple views of the same table showing different selection of data and different calculations and presentations.

Filter

The view has a filter that determines which of the table rows will be included in the view.

Field Selection

You can select the fields that are displayed in the view. You make field selections using the View Editor.

Type

The view has a type which is one of the following 3 types: List, Pivot, or Chart. You can change the view type using the View Editor. When you change the type, the view still remembers the settings that were made for its previous type in case you go back to that type at a later time.

A normal progression is to start with a list. The list allows you to browse through the data and use the filter to focus on subsets of the data. For example, you can limit sales data to a particular region and product. You can then switch the type to a pivot. The filter remains and you can now aggregate the data along different dimensions of your product, for example by year and quarter. To visualize the data, switch the view type to chart. When you do that for the first time, the chart would reflect the presentation of the pivot. You can then edit the chart further to get the exact visualization that meets your analysis and presentation needs.