Highlight Alternating Rows in a Report Using IBM Cognos Analytics (11.1.7)

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For users of IBM Cognos Analytics a popular request is to highlight alternating rows in a report. This article will demonstrate how to achieve this result using the list container and the property Conditional Styles.

In order to create the report, the following objects will be used:

Object Definition
List containerContains report data
Query CalculationsCreate calculations
Running-count() functionGet sequential numbers
Mod() functionGet remainders of 0 or 1
List columns body style ancestorAncestor object used to highlight the data
Conditional stylesCreate type of style

Finished Product

When the demo is finished your report will look similar to the following:

Let’s get started.  The first thing we’ll do is create a simple list report using the sample GO Sales (query) package included with the application.  However, you can use any data to follow along.  

Create the query calculation

  1. Select the blank template and create a report using the List container. 
  2. From the Sales(query) namespace add the Product number, Product and Revenue data items to the list.
  1. View the report in Page Preview.
  1. From the Toolbox, add a Query Calculation to the end of the list container next to Revenue.  The Data item expression dialog will open. Name the calculation Count. 
  2. Click the Functions tab at the bottom of the screen.   
  1. Open the Summaries folder and double click the running-count() function to add it to the expression.  This function returns the running count by row for a set of values.
  1. Click the second tab on the dialog box, Data Items , and drag the Product Number to the function.  Add the ending parenthesis.

Running-count(Product number)

  1. Click OK to view the results.

The result of the running-count() function will show sequential numbers on each row.

Create Values to Highlight

The mod() function returns the remainder of two numbers.  In our case it will generate the numbers 0 or 1 after the division takes place.  

We will nest the mod() function around the running-count() function to achieve this result.

  1. Double-click the Count column title to return to the Data item expression.
  2. Modify the expression as follows.

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