I know Joins have been a topic of discussion on the Forum (I've read most of the posts), but I haven't seen anything that addresses how to set up a join in InfoAssist. Specifically, what are the things to consider when choosing between Single or Multiple Instances?
I recently worked on a report that joined two tables to the main table and thought multiple was the way to go because there could be multiple records that matched back to the main table, but that gave incorrect results. I had to use Single on both to get the correct results, but I don't understand why.

Thanks in advance for help in understanding this!
--Deb

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FP Mod Chuck,

What's the data source of the tables involved? Are they all relational and in the same DBMS or are you joining HOLD files?

Deb

This has always made me a little crazy and I heard the explanation once but can't recite it back.. 99 times out of a 100 a single or unique join will do what you want. To prevent users from doing the wrong thing because (and this is the part that makes me crazy) the default is to do the multiple join you can create a Reporting Object that has the join pre-defined or you can create a cluster join in the metadata itself and let them use that..

The tables are all relational and in the same DBMS.

The issue with creating a Reporting Object is that my BAs keep creating new joins! I'd have to anticipate what they'll come up with next. Plus, I'm holding off on creating Reporting Objects until we upgrade to 8.2 later this year. We're still on 8.1.05M.

Sounds like what I am hearing is, try it until you get what you're looking for. Not exactly what I was hoping for!

Deb

I think the single join will work 99% of the time so steer them in that direction.

Chuck,
Thanks for all the info. I will indeed steer them in that direction.

--Deb

Hi Deb,

A couple of suggestions so that your users do not have this issue would be -

• Cluster Joins
• Reporting Objects

Either of these might suit your Company and the way that they wish to work.

One advantage from the end users point of view is that they do not have to worry about the structure and the joins because they would already have been analysed and set within either solution.

If you need assistance with understanding or implementing either or both of these (plus business views of course), check with your local IB team for their Professional Services team.

T