Altair® Monarch®

 

View Options

Use this window to modify the settings that affect the way some types of data elements appear on screen, including zero values and null values. This tab also includes settings that determine the height of column titles and data rows in Monarch Complete’s Table and Summary windows.

To access this window select Options from the Home ribbon, then select View from the Options Window ribbon.

DATA Values

Field

Description

Suppress zero values

This option, when selected, suppresses zero values when viewing data in the Table and Summary windows. Suppressed zeros are not printed, but are exported as zero values when the Table or Summary data is exported or copied to any format except text. For text export and copy operations, the suppressed zeros are exported as space characters to retain column integrity.

Note that Monarch Complete implements zero suppression based upon the value that is returned to each cell after any rounding has been done on the value. For example, if you set the precision of a cell containing the value 0.004 to two decimal places, Monarch Complete will round the value to 0.00. Since this value equates to zero, it will be suppressed if zero suppression is turned on. This is not the case in other applications, such as MS-Excel, where the underlying value 0.004 is retained and evaluated against zero. In Excel, the cell would be displayed as 0.00 and would not be suppressed, since its underlying value (0.004) is not equal to zero.

Display Null Values As

This option determines how null values will appear on screen in the Table and Summary windows. You may enter a text string to use when representing null values. The string will be displayed using right justification.

In Monarch Complete, as in most other database applications, a null value represents an unknown value or a value that cannot be calculated. Monarch Complete returns null values under a variety of situations:

  • When a calculated field expression causes division by zero.

  • When the Minimum or Maximum calculation is used in a summary if no records match the key field values for a cell (e.g., there are no records of media type "CD" for the customer "Bluegrass Records"). In this case, no data is available to the cell.

  • When the Standard Deviation or Variance calculation is used in a summary if only a single record matches the key field values for a cell. In this case, there is insufficient information available to perform the calculation.

  • When the denominator in a Ratio measure calculation evaluates to zero causing the Ratio calculation to result in division by zero

Monarch Complete exhibits the following behavior when evaluating expressions and calculations that reference one or more null values:

Evaluation

When a null is used in an evaluation, the expression always evaluates to False. This is the case even when a null is evaluated against another null. The reason is that null is treated as an unknown value (when two unknown values are evaluated against each other, it cannot be said that they are equal).

Monarch Complete's expression engine also does not support the constant NULL, so evaluations like the following one cannot be made: If(Amount=NULL, true result, false result)

However, an indirect method of evaluation against null will work in Monarch Complete. For example, let's say that you want to create a filter in the Table window that removes all records where the Amount field value is null. Let's say that you also know that the Amount field values are never likely to be larger than 1,000,000.00 (one million) or smaller than –1,000,000.00 (negative one million). You could use either of the following filter expressions to remove records whose values are null:

Amount>-1000000
or
Amount<1000000

Either expression will evaluate to True for all records that contain a valid value in the Amount field, and will evaluate to False for all records that contain a null in the Amount field (since an evaluation against null returns False).

Calculation

When a null is referenced in a calculated field expression, the result of the expression is null. For example, the expression Amount*0.2 returns the Amount field value divided by 5 for all records where Amount contains a number. For records where Amount contains null, the expression returns null.

When one or more null values are included in a measure aggregation, the null values are ignored. This can produce the desired result or an unexpected result, depending upon your point of view. For example, the Average(Amount) calculation returns the average Amount by dividing the sum of the Amount values by the Count (the number of records from which the function drew Amount values). Records for which the Amount value is null are not included in the calculation. A different result is returned by the Ratio(Amount:Count) calculation, as this calculation tallies the Amount values and the Count values in two steps. First, the sum of the Amount values is calculated, then, in isolation, the Count for all records matching the same key field values is determined. Thus, in a Ratio calculation, the Count represents all of the records, including those whose Amount field contains null.

 

Default Row Height options

Note: The following settings are used only as the defaults for new models and new summary definitions that are created in new and existing models. These settings do not apply to an existing model (i.e., to an existing Table window), nor do they apply to existing summary definitions.

Field

Description

Lines in column title row

This setting determines the default height for column titles in the Table and Summary windows. You may set the height from 1-12 lines. Column titles that are too long to fit on a single line will wrap to fit.

Lines in data rows

This setting determines the default height for data rows in the Table and Summary windows. You may set the height from 1-12 lines. Data values that are too long to fit on a single line will wrap to fit.

 

Graphics

This setting, when Use Software rendering is selected, bypasses hardware-based rendering, which is useful in cases where you are getting bad visual performance with Monarch Complete (scrolling, rendering etc) even with a very high-end graphics card.

If you are having graphics rendering issues, also ensure that you have the latest graphics drivers to maximum performance in terms of graphics rendering.

 

DATA pREVIEW

Field

Description

Automatically Refresh Data Preview

Instructs Monarch Complete to refresh Data Preview panels.

Show Fields from All Templates in Report Design

Instructs Monarch Complete to display all of the fields defined in all of the templates when in Report Design View.

Show n rows in data preview

Specifies the number of rows to display in Data Preview panels.

 

Other Options

Field

Description

Show splash screen

Shows the splash screen each time Monarch Classic is launched.   

 

View Options, General buttons

Field

Description

Makes these default settings

Saves the current settings in the Registry as the defaults for future Monarch Complete sessions. Note: When closing the current model you will be prompted to save the model changes. You must select Yes to save the tab settings as the defaults. If you choose not to save the model changes, the tab settings will not be saved as the defaults.

Restore from default settings

Restores the settings to the most recently saved defaults in the Registry.