Solve Order in Crosstab Reports in Cognos Report Studio

Solve order specifies the order in which calculations are processed in crosstab and chart reports. In general, the item with the lowest solve order value is calculated first followed by the next lowest value. If we don’t specify any value for this property, column items are calculated first and then row items and then the measure. In charts, x-axis items are calculated first and then legend items. This leads to incorrect results.

In the below example, “Gross Profit %” is a calculated column with an expression [Gross Profit/Revenue]. When you run the report, the total row for this calculation simply adds each of the individual ‘Gross Profit %’ row values to get a “Total Gross Profit %”. However, this result is incorrect.

In order to calculate the Gross Profit % after totaling the Revenue and Gross Profit columns, change the solve order value for Revenue to 1, Gross Profit to 2 and Gross Profit % to 3.

 

 

 

After setting this property, the result will be displayed as follows: