Introduction to hierarchy reporting

Hierarchy reports allow users to present data in a hierarchical structure within a grid. Both balanced and unbalanced hierarchies may be represented in a hierarchy report, although unbalanced hierarchies benefit the most from hierarchy reporting features. Users can also filter and sort hierarchies.

There are two types of attributes: normal attributes and hierarchical attributes. A normal attribute represents a single hierarchy level (for example, Month). A hierarchical attribute represents an entire hierarchy and its levels (for example, Time includes levels of Year, Quarter, Month, and Day). A hierarchical attribute can be placed on a grid, filtered, and sorted, much like a normal attribute. If a hierarchy is imported as a single hierarchical attribute, then the entire hierarchy can be placed on a report at once, and operations like filtering and sorting can be performed respecting the hierarchy. If a hierarchy is imported as multiple normal attributes to represent each hierarchy level, then each level can be placed on a report separately, and filters can be created based on specific levels.