FDMEE Tips: Using Factors in Import Formats
Import expressions can be added to an FDMEE import format to alter the data being imported from a file in several valuable ways. In this blog, I focus on using the ‘Factor’ import expression, which allows you to multiply your data by any whole number or decimal factor. This means that you can scale the file data effortlessly by any numeric factor.
The syntax for this expression is Factor=Value, where the value is the user-defined whole or decimal number you wish to multiply your data by. The import expression should be entered in the ‘Expression’ field for the ‘Amount’ source column.
Listed below are a few things to consider when applying a factor to your data:
- Factors are only applied when the import format Data Type is set to one of the following:
- Delimited–Numeric data
- Fixed–Numeric data
- Multi-Column–Numeric Data
- The factor will be applied to all data amounts in the file.
- When importing a multi-column file with Account members in the columns, all columns of data will be factored by the user-defined value – you cannot specify a singular column to apply the factor to.
Factor Example
Note: To stack this expression, i.e. to include more than one expression for a single import format, separate each expression with a semi-colon. E.g. below, where expression NZP is added to stop the suppression of zeros when importing data.
In the past, I have used a Factor expression to allow the loading of percentages into Accounts that are set to Percentage Data Type. This is necessary because, if your data file contains percentages as whole numbers, e.g. 20%, rather than the decimal 0.2, then the loaded number will be 100 times larger than you require. To get around this, we use a Factor=0.01 expression in the import format to divide all data values by 100.
For more Hyperion tips and tricks from me, go to http://lydia-maksoud-epm.blogspot.co.uk/.