Creating a Dynamic Column in Cognos - Beginners Guide 7th tutorial

What is a Dynamic Column?
A dynamic column is a column that is added to the list report or a cross tab report and for which the value is generated at the time of creation of the report automatically. Such columns are not taken from the database. These columns are populated from the cognos report level.
It is clearly explained in the following example. Here we have a list report in which a dynamic column is added. According to our definition, a dnamic column should generate by itself while report is running. So, we take “data item1” as a dynamic olumn and we give an expression margin + 10 as the value of that data item.



Example on How to create a dynamic column in Cognos

1.Create a list using Go Sales and Retialers package.Drag List from Insertable Object Pane,add Product Line,Product Type and Margin data item from Order Folder of Go Sales and Retailers Package.For this Query 1 will be created automatically.

2. Go to Query Explorer Tab and click on Query 1. You will find a menu as seen in the below screen shot. This will open up a window provision facilitating us to add some data items in the insertable objects pane.

3. After the addition of data items in the insertable objects pane. The window looks like the following. In this case we have selected Product line, product type and Margin and another data item named “data item1” which is going to serve as a dynamic column in this example.

Now after dragging the required field, (data items here), while adding it will open up a new window asking us to enter value for that. Give an expression or a static value for the data item depending upon the need.
Here data item1 = [Margin] + 10

4. Now add that data item to list. While adding to the list the for checking the drag and drop functionality, you can refer to the previous posts which explains clearly how to drag and dop at the right place.

5. Now run the report and the dynamic colmn “data item1” is shown as below. Which is margin cost + 10 in this example.

Now that you have seen how to generate a dynamic column in Cognos8 Report studio. For the Cognos Report Net (CRN), the process will be same. The look and feal of the drap and dop functonality is the only minor difference you find in this scenario.