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16.2 Creating FlexTables

Create a FlexTable from Excel data, from a file, from dimensions you pick, or as an empty table. Where you create it decides who can use it – see 16.1 What are FlexTables.

Where to Create It

For How
Everyone Main window → FlexTables folder → + (or right-click → New → New FlexTable)
One workbook In design mode, Object Tree → Report Objects → right-click Flex Tables → New table
One visual In design mode, right-click the visual in the Element Structure panel → Enter own data → New empty table

The editor opens with a choice of how to start:

The New FlexTable dialog Choose how to fill the new table.

Choice What happens
Clipboard data Pastes what you copied, e.g. a range in Excel (only available when the clipboard has data)
Import file Imports an Excel or text file – see below
Quick configuration Builds the table from dimensions and columns you pick – see below
New empty table Starts with one empty column

You name the table when you save it the first time.

Quick Configuration

The Configure table dialog Pick dimensions and input columns; the Popular group lists the most used dimension units.

  1. On the Columns tab, double-click (or drag) dimension units from Available to Table columns, e.g. Month and Department.
  2. Add Input columns for your own values: Text, Number, Date or Yes/No. Rename them in the list, e.g. Budget.
  3. Tick Pre-fill table with dimension values to create a row for every combination – e.g. every month for every department – so you only fill in the numbers.
  4. Use the Filter tab to limit the rows, e.g. only this year's months. Without a filter, a pre-filled table can become very large; Datashop warns you.
  5. Click OK.

Quick config on the editor's ribbon reopens the dialog later to add or remove columns.

Pasting and Importing

Paste from Excel: copy a range in Excel and paste it into the table (Ctrl+V). If the data has formatting, choose OK to keep it, or Ignore to paste plain text with the import options.

Import from file (Ctrl+O, or drag a file onto the editor) reads .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .csv, .tsv and .txt. The Import Options panel shows a live preview:

Option What it does
Source: The sheet, named range or Excel table to import
First row contains headers Use the first row as column names (detected automatically)
Insert at current position / Replace all existing data Add to the table, or replace its contents
Detect data types Recognize numbers and dates
Auto-bind to dimensions Bind columns whose values match a dimension, e.g. customer numbers. Tolerance sets how many values may be missing in the dimension.
Split date-time columns Split columns with date and time into two
Delimiter For text files: Auto, Tab, Semicolon, Comma or Pipe

Click Apply to import, or Cancel to undo the preview.

From the Data in a Visual

In design mode, right-click the visual in the Element Structure panel → Enter own data:

  • Convert to local copy – turns what the visual shows now into a FlexTable named Local data. The visual then shows only this table – a frozen snapshot, no longer linked to your systems. Useful for examples or what-if versions. Undo reverses it.
  • Create targets... – a table of targets next to the actual figures – see 10.6 Targets.

Tips – Creating FlexTables

  • Start with Quick configuration for budgets: dimensions plus a number column, pre-filled, is the quickest way to a clean budget table.
  • Use Auto-bind to dimensions when importing – bound columns are what link the table to your other data.

Common Issues – Creating FlexTables

Problem: Clipboard data is greyed out. - Solution: Copy the data first, e.g. a range in Excel.

Problem: An imported column wasn't bound to a dimension. - Solution: Bind it in the editor: right-click the column → Bind to dimension – see 16.3 The FlexTable Editor.