How can I display a tendency arrow ?

building reports desktopintelligence
1

Hello,
I work with BO V5 and Oracle 8.1.7.
In a results table, I report two columns A and B of numeric values. In a third column, I want to compare values A and B. As a result, I want to display a tendency arrow that indicates the trend:

  • If value of column B is superior to the corresponding value of column A, I want to display an ascending arrow
  • If value of column B is inferior to the corresponding value of column A, I want to display an descending arrow
  • If value of column B is equal to the corresponding value of column A, I want to display an horizontal arrow

Does someone know how to do this ?
Can I include an image (arrows) in a BO formula ?
If it is not possible, what do you think about storing the arrows images in the database ?

Thanks for your advices

:roll_eyes:

BBB (BOB member since 2003-05-20)

2

You might look at the WingDings font as it may have the characters that you need. For example, in the WingDings font the J turns into :slight_smile: and the K into :frowning: so you may find some arrow characters.

When I checked, character 233 is a nice, bold, up arrow, char 232 is sideways, and 234 is down. There are non-bold versions at characters 224 - 226 as well.

In your case you could create a variable called “Indicator” with the following logic:

If (<B> > <A>) Then Char(233) Else If (<B> < <A>) Then Char(234) Else Char(232)

That will create a variable that displays character 233 when the trend is up, 234 when the trend is down, and finally 232 when the trend is sideways. For the last step, highlight the cell in question and format it with the WingDings font… it should be a standard font for Windows installations. 8)

Dave Rathbun :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

3

Hi,

You can do this as follows:

Insert an image.
Then create a variable which returns the locations of the images in each different case.
example:
=if > then “c:\images\up.bmp” else if = then “c:\images\equal.bmp” else …

Now paste this new variable in the cell of the image you inserted before.
If you want this in a table, yust move the cell to the table so it will become a column.

regards,
Michael

hoogkamer (BOB member since 2002-08-20)
4

Another way is that you can use alerters to accomplish this test and have it return the variables that use the different arrows as the result objects.

Just create a variable for each arrow tendency. then use the alerter for the test. When A > B return when A<B return and A=B return .

Hope this helps as well…
8)

n5xjb :us: (BOB member since 2003-09-15)

5

Thanks to all for the tricks.
All the solution work fine.

Regards

BBB (BOB member since 2003-05-20)