Cognos 11 Crosstab - need a value that doesn't have a reference to the column values - business-intelligence

Question

Crosstab report works 99%.
About 20 rows, all but one are ok.
5 columns - Company Division.
The rows are things like cost, revenue, revenue 2, etc.
All the rows that work have three attributes I'm using to select them:
Fiscal Year
Period
Solution.
The problem is there is table that lists an YTD rate for each period. This table is not Division Specific; it's company wide.
All the tables are linked to the accounting period table that has fiscal year and period. So the overall query limits data to fiscal year (?pFiscalYear?) and period <= ?pPeriod?, based on prompt page results.
The source table has this:
FY_CD PD_NO ACT_CURR_RT ACT_YTD_RT
2018 1 0.36121715 0.36121715
2018 2 0.32471476 0.34255512
2018 3 0.25240906 0.31210183
2018 4 0.33154745 0.31925874
Note the YTD rate is not an average of any of the other numbers.
When I select the ACT_YTD_RT, as a row, I want the ACT_YTD_RT that matches the selected period.
What I get is the average if I set the aggregation to average or the lowest if I set it to other aggregations. So sometimes, it looks right (if I run for period 1,2,3, as the rate kept falling), and sometimes it's wrong (period 4
returns .3121 instead of .3192).
I've tried a number of different methods and can generate garbage data (totals, min, max, average) and crossjoins but can't figure out how to get the value I'm looking for.
I want YTD_RT where fiscal year =?pFiscal? and period = ?pPeriod?.
I tried a straight if then clause:
if (sourcetable.fiscalYear = ?pFiscalYear?) and (sourcetable.Period = ?pPeriod?) then (ACT_YTD_RT)
but I get an error like this:
'ACT_YTD_RT' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause. (SQLSTATE=42000, SQLERRORCODE=8120)
If I create another query that generates the right response and try to include it, I get a crossjoin error that the query I'm referencing is trying to crossjoin several other items in the crosstab query.
A union doesn't work (different number of columns).
Not sure how a join would work since the division doesn't exist in the rate table.
I maybe could create a view in the database that did a crossjoin of the division table and the rate table, add that to the framework and then I wouldn't have a crossjoin since the solution would be in the rate "table" (really view), but that seems wrong somehow.
If I could just write a freaking parameterized query direct to the database I'd be done. But in Cognos 11 crosstabs I can't find a place for a SQL query object. And that shouldn't be necessary.
I've spent hours and hours chasing this in circles.
Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks
Paul

Answer 1

So the earlier problem was that this:
if (sourcetable.fiscalYear = ?pFiscalYear?) and (sourcetable.Period = ?pPeriod?) then (ACT_YTD_RT)
Generated an error like this:
'ACT_YTD_RT' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause. (SQLSTATE=42000, SQLERRORCODE=8120)
To fix the above, I had to add a cross join of the division table and the rate table as a view in the database. Then add that to the framework. Then build the data item this way:
total (
if (sourcetable.fiscalYear = ?pFiscalYear?) and (sourcetable.Period = ?pPeriod?) then (ACT_YTD_RT)
)
And now the "total" provides the missing group by. And the crossjoin in the database provides the division information so the crosstab is happy.
I still think there should have been an easier way to do this, but I have a functioning hammer at the moment.