Using the Simple Interface to Plots and Tables

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Using the Simple Interface to Plots and Tables

The Simple Interface to Plots and Tables allows easy access to the most commonly used plots and tables. To use it, observe the following three steps (you can actually perform a sample query from this help file):

Step 1: Select Data Types

The available data names are shown on the left side of the table. For example,

Help
	Grouped by Day of Report Date	vs Report

Report Time
Urgency
Estimated Hours to Fix
Beam Lost Hours

click on the data name to see a detailed explanation of that element.

For the data name that you want, check one of the boxes in the next five columns. In our example, those options are:

column 2: plot grouped by day of report date
column 3: tabulate grouped by day of report date
column 4: sum and average
column 5: tabulate vs report number
column 6: plot vs report number

The plotting system currently only allows you to plot one quantity at a time. For tables or sum and average, you may select more than one data name.

For some data names, not all columns will be allowed. For example, since Urgency is a character string, it can be shown in tables but it cannot be summed or shown on plots.

Some data names may refer to various output files on disk rather than to Oracle data. An example is the PASS1 Statistics in the SLD Interface. When these data names are included in a table, a column of output file names is presented.

If the relevant output file is actually present on disk, you can bring up the actual file by clicking on the file name.
If the relevant output file is not found on disk, the file name is listed as "Missing."

Step 2: Select a Range

Range options are presented as follows:
Last Report Date Report

Check the box next to "Last" if you want to specify the last n reports or dates. Then select either reports or dates from the scrolling area.
Check the box next to "Report Date" if you want to specify a range of report dates.
Check the box next to "Report" if you want to specify a range of report numbers.

Step 3: Select How to Handle Invalid Data

Care must be taken to decide how you want invalid elements to be handled. In some cases, you may want to exclude rows of data for which any of the requested elements was invalid. This is particularly important when comparing data between several different columns, or when studying ratios.

Options on how to handle invalid data are presented as follows:

Oracle rows for which some of the requested data is invalid should be Included Excluded

Check the box next to "Excluded" if you want to exclude rows of Oracle data for which some of the requested values are invalid.
Check the box next to "Included" if you want to include all rows of Oracle data.
The word "Invalid" will be written next to any invalid entries.
If a sum is requested, the sum is given for the valid entries and you are told the exact number of invalid entries.
If a ratio is involved, you are told the number of invalid entries for the numerator and the number of invalid entries for the denominator.

For most data names, data is tagged as invalid if the corresponding entry in the Oracle database is NULL.

A few special data names use other algorithms to determine whether the data should be considered invalid. See the relevant glossary entry (by clicking on the relevant column of the table header) to learn more about these special data names.

Step 4: Submit the Request

Once you have selected data names, range, and how to handle invalid data, you submit the request by hitting one of the five buttons above the columns where you have selected your data.

Help
	Grouped by Day of Report Date			vs Report

Tables Using Group By

If you specify a "group by" element for a table, all rows that have the same value of the "group by" element will be combined.

For columns of numeric data, the numbers will be summed.
For columns of non-numeric data:
- if rows in a given group are the same, that common value will be displayed
- if the rows in the group are different, the word "various" will be displayed

Joseph Perl and The Run Information Group
Last Updated: 10 July 1997