What is the difference between rollups and slices?

Environment:

Analytics, Formatting Results

Resolution:

When generating a report, you can use slicing and rollups to view specific subsets of data based on an output column in the report.

Slices: Including slices in a report allows you to view all of the data or just a portion of the data that you want to view. For example, you have a report that shows all incidents by agents. You can slice the report to show data assigned to specific agents. You can then click on the agent's name to view only those incidents assigned to that agent.

When adding slices to a report, you can have the slices listed to the left of the report in a tree structure or you can have the slices listed across the top of the report as links.

You can edit the report to include slicing so that when you run the report, the slices are generated. You can also  include slices to a report after it has been generated.

You can select the 'Show Group Counts' check box when displaying slices as a tree to include the number of records in the slice group. The number displays next to each group name in the tree.
 
To add slices to a report, use the steps below:

1. Either open the report for editing or run the report of interest.
    
2. From the Home tab, click Slice from the Analyze group.    
    
3. Enter the criteria you want to slice by in the fields provided. 
    
   For example, you can slice by column values and then specify whether to display the slices as a tree or as links. Then, specify the column or columns to slice by.
    
4. Click OK to save the slice settings.
    
5. If editing a report, save the report.

Rollups: Rollups allow you to collapse (or rollup) a section of data within your report based on a column value. This allows you to expand and view a specific section of your report at a time.  With a rollup, you can have a section of data and either expand it to show all records associated with the value or you can collapse that section.

For example, you can display incidents for a group and use a rollup on the status to easily access all incidents associated with that status. Then, you can expand the Unresolved incidents to see which new incidents were submitted or you can expand the Updated incidents to see which incidents had been updated by the end-user.

When rollups are used, each grouping displays a sub-total of the number of records in that group so that you can easily see which rollup has the most records associated with it.

You can edit a report and add a rollup so that the rollup is included automatically when the report is run. You can also add a rollup to a report after it has been run to allow you to easily group records based on a column value.

To create a rollup, use the steps below:

1. Open the report for editing or run the report.
    
2. From the Home tab, click Rollups from the Analyze group.  
    
3. In the pop-up window, select the column and sort order for the rollup groups.
    
4. To include groups counts for the rollup values, scroll to the bottom of the pop-up window and enable the Display Group Counts check box.
    
5. Click OK to close the pop-up window.
    
6. If you edited a report, save the report and generate it to review the rollup groups.

Whether to use slices or rollups depends on your preference for how to access and review the data. Consider running a report that you are familiar with and then add slices and rollups to that report to determine which options works best for you and your staff.

For additional information, refer to the 'Slicing report data' and 'Define rollups' section in the Online Help User Guide documentation. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.