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WinPivotGrid Overview

Topic Overview

Purpose

This topic provides an overview of the WinPivotGrid™ control and its main features.

Required background

The following table lists the concept required as a prerequisite to understanding this topic.

Type Content

Concept

Online Analytical Processing ( OLAP) is a method of retrieving answers to complex analytical queries from multidimensional data cubes.

XML for Analysis ( XMLA) provides open access to multidimensional data from varied data sources - any client platform to any server platform - through web services that are supported by multiple vendors.

ActiveX Data Objects, multidimensional ( ADOMD) is a Microsoft .Net framework data provider.

WinPivotGrid Control

Introduction

The UltraWinPivotGrid control can serve as a tool for summarizing your data, and allows you to create complex business analysis applications. It uses OLAP to present the results of multidimensional data, making it easy to visualize the data in a sliced dimension.

Control elements

The four crucial elements of the WinPivotGrid control are the following areas known as drop areas:

  • Rows – Drop area for rows

  • Columns – Drop area for columns

  • Measures – Drop area for numeric values queried for given rows and columns

  • Filters – (optional) Drop area for filtered criteria that help to narrow down the data to display as part of the query

WinPivotGrid Overview 1.png

The data area is reserved to represent the Rows/Columns; RowColumn headers and cell values for measures.

WinPivotGrid Overview 2.png

Main Features

Expandable row/column headers

By default, when Rows/Columns are dropped in the drop areas dimensions collapse. The ‘+’ sign located in the Row/Column header allows to Expand/Collapse.

WinPivotGrid Overview 3.png

Assigning rows, columns and measures

Assignment of the Rows/Columns is either performed automatically, dropping them on the form, or manually when adding the dimensions for Rows/Columns via code, for example:

Rows = "[Date].[Calendar]"

Columns = "[Product].[Category]"

Measures = "[Measures].[Reseller Sales Amount]"

Filtering

Filtering is an essential feature that allows narrowing down the summarized data into more specific fields for statistics as it is illustrated in the following screenshot:

Filters="[Sales Territory].[Sales Territory Country]"

WinPivotGrid Overview 4.png

Filtering also provides runtime capability with a dropdown menu allowing the user to filter out columns by clicking the filter icon and using the checkboxes to select/unselect columns.

WinPivotGrid Overview 5.png

Sorting

The column headers allow sorting, and as it is illustrated in the following screenshot with Bikes column, when you hover the mouse point over the column header the sort indicator appears:

WinPivotGrid Overview 6.png

Multi-column sorting is another sort feature that you can perform by pressing down the shift key on the keyboard and clicking the sort indicator located on a column header.

The following screenshot illustrates multi-column sorting with “Model Name” column dimansion that contains multiple columns. The two highlighted columns below are sorted individually in Descending / Ascending order.

WinPivotGrid Overview 7.png

Data Selector

The WinPivotGrid allows data binding directly to a data source, and also using the MdxDataSelector. The Multidimensional Expression (MDX) data selector functions as a provider for the multidimensional data from OLAP data services.

The MdxDataSelector consists of two dropdowns for data catalogs and OLAP cubes, and a tree structure to display the measures and dimensions.

WinPivotGrid Overview 8.png

The following screenshot illustrates selecting and dropping a dimension from data selector onto the pivot column drop area.

WinPivotGrid Overview 9.png
WinPivotGrid Overview 10.png

Related Content

Topics

The following topics provide additional information related to this topic.

Topic Purpose

This topic explains and demonstrates the WinPivotGrid™ data binding to each supported data Source/Provider.

This topic illustrates, with screenshots, the available options and configurations in customizing the appearance of the WinPivotGrid™ control.

This section lists common terms used in pivot grid topics.