The Revelwood team has created many IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos. Which ones made it into the top 3 with the most views on YouTube? [Drumroll please!]

They are (in order of the most views):

1. Shortcuts in PAW Models

In this video, we demonstrate how to save time when creating dimensions, cubes, processes and chores. We explain how to use a shortcut to create the components in your model. In legacy tools, such as Architect, you had to create these components piece by piece. With Planning Analytics you can create multiple components without having to navigate back and forth.

2. Color in Planning Analytics Workspace Charts

This video shows you how to add color to your multidimensional charts in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW). We demonstrate how to do this using an Exploration. You’ll learn how to easily add/change colors to make your charts easier to read and understand.

3. Filtering in Planning Analytics Editor

In this video, we demonstrate some approaches to filtering your elements when defining a subset in the Planning Analytics editor. You’ll learn how to:

• Filter dimensions
• Use descriptors such as “contains,” “equal,” and “start.” This eliminates the need to use *ZYX.
• Filter elements
• Reset filters
• Add a second filter

Want to learn more? Take a look at all our IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos. Get notified when we have a new video by subscribing to our Youtube channel.

Revelwood has worked with IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 for more than 27 years. We’ve partnered with hundreds of companies on the design, development, maintenance and updates of IBM Planning Analytics applications, across every industry. Have a challenge with Planning Analytics / TM1? We can help you!

Watch more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Videos:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to Set Up Action Buttons in Planning Analytics for Excel

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to Set Up Synchronizations in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Global Settings in Overview Area of Exploration

A while back, I wrote a blog about using Excel to manipulate text. The functions in that blog allow you to rip text apart and put the pieces together so you can parse out pieces of your text strings. Since that writing, Microsoft has introduced two additional functions that can help you search for specific text values. These functions are TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER.

• TEXTBEFORE will return text before the characters you are searching for
• TEXTAFTER will return text after the characters you are searching for

Both functions have two required parameters:

=TEXTBEFORE(text,delimiter)

=TEXTAFTER(text,delimiter)

• The text parameter defines the string value you are searching for
• The delimiter parameter defines the point after you want to extract

In addition, there are optional parameters that can be used to determine case sensitivity and what to do if no match if found.

The following example shows how to use these functions:

This approach will simplify your searches by eliminating the need to merge functions such as FIND, and LEN and LEFT/RIGHT together.

Revelwood has worked with IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 for more than 27 years. We’ve partnered with hundreds of companies on the design, development, maintenance and updates of IBM Planning Analytics applications, across every industry. Have a challenge with Planning Analytics / TM1? We can help you!

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to Set Up Action Buttons in Planning Analytics for Excel

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel SEQUENCE

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Go To Line in Process

MDX enables you to query dimensions and cubes, lists of elements, data points, calculations, and more. 

The first step in learning MDX is to understand the syntax. Below is an example of an MDX expression that returns all elements of the product dimension sorted in ascending order. To understand the expression, we’ve color-coded the syntax below. 

Part1, the part that is associated with the TM1 structure and model, is in green. This defines cubes, dimensions, hierarchies, elements and more. 

Part 2, in blue, is the MDX Function.

Part 3 is in red. These are known as curly brackets or braces. These convert the results of the MDX Expression into a set. 

The Expression below lets you list all elements of the product dimension and sort the list in ascending order:

Revelwood recently hosted a webinar on How to Use MDX in your IBM Planning Analytics Environment. Watch the recording to learn more about using MDX.

Interested in learning more about MDX? We have another MDX-specific webinar on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 at 1pm ET. Attendees will learn advanced MDX functions and see real-life examples of how Revelwood used MDX to address complex reporting requirements and to solve client challenges. 

Have a question about MDX? Register for our upcoming webinar or reach out to us at info@revelwood.com

Revelwood has worked with IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 for more than 27 years. We’ve partnered with hundreds of companies on the design, development, maintenance and updates of IBM Planning Analytics applications, across every industry. Have a challenge with Planning Analytics / TM1? We can help you!

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks on MDX:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: An Approach to Strengthening your MDX Skills

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Making Default Cube Views Dynamic with MDX

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Dynamic Subsets Based on a Cube