Alternate states allow users to make different selections on the same dimension, which can be very useful when performing comparative analysis. In the example below will be comparing sales between two countries, and to go a step further we will also be able to compare sales people with one another to get an idea of how employees are performing.
- Create the states by going to Settings -> Document Properties -> General -> Alternate States
2. Click Add to create a state identifier and name it Group 1. Repeat to create a second identifier and name it Group 2. Once your state identifiers have been created click OK to close the open dialog boxes. At this point we’ve done nothing but create labels for the alternate states.
3. The goal is to compare sales between two countries, so create two list boxes and use the Country field for both. (To keep things simple I labeled these boxes Country Group 1 and Country Group 2)
4. Set the alternate state to the appropriate state identifier for each list box.
5. Create two more list boxes this time using Sales Person as the dimension, again setting the appropriate identifier for each.
6. These newly created list boxes will be independent from the rest of the document in terms of selection, unless the other objects are set to the same state. As you can see when the UK is selected as the country of choice the sales people from the USA are grayed out and vice versa when the USA is the selected country.
7. Let’s create a bar chart to visually see the power of alternate states. In order to display both states of the data you will have to create two expressions, making sure to assign a state to each expression.
8. Once you’re done formatting your chart play around by making selections to see alternate states and comparative analysis at work.
Hope this helps you with your QlikView adventures. If you have any questions or comments feel free to shoot me an email at:
Kristi Smith, ksmith@ecapitaladvisors.com
