Refining the data selection

You can limit the number of records returned by applying various filters.

About this task

You can reduce the amount of data in the records view by applying various filters and other tools.
  • Select only those records from the last day, week, month, quarter, or year
  • Select records based on any date and time you specify.
  • Filter by Application ID. Wildcards are allowed.
  • Filter by Transaction ID. Wildcards are allowed.
  • Write a freeform filter.
  • Select a single or multiple transaction IDs
  • Select a single performance summary report.
  • Sort the list according to any of the data columns.
  • Limit the number of records displayed after sorting.

You can use the Applid or Transaction ID filter fields to limit the number of records to specific APPLIDs or transaction ids. You can refine the data further by selecting one or more Transaction ids in the Transactions view by holding down the Ctrl key when selecting.

Records view with filters applied.

Procedure

All the following steps are optional. Select only the steps which provide you with the subset of data you need.

  1. Set the date or time period you are interested in.
    1. To list only the records for a day, week, month, quarter, or year, click the arrow to the right of the Date selection tool
      Date selection menu
      . Select the required period and click OK. The sheet view displays records that match this time period.
    2. To select a more precise period, click the Date selection tool Date-time selection tool. The date selection dialog opens.
      Date-time selection dialog
      Select the date and time values and click OK.
      The sheet view is updated.
  2. To restrict the data to only a subset of the application names, type all or part of an application name in the Applid filter field and click Apply filter Apply filter. You can use wildcards in the name. The list of application IDs is updated.
  3. To restrict the data to only a subset of the transaction names, type all or part of a transaction name in the Transaction ID filter field and click Apply filter Apply filter. You can use wildcards in the name. The list of transaction IDs is updated.
  4. You can write a freeform filter.
    1. In the upper right corner of the sheet view is the Data filters tool. Click this field to move the cursor into it. You can now write your freeform filter directly into this field. For example, if you type transaction ID != C* only non CICS® transactions are displayed. You can press Ctrl+space to see a list of all the fields which can be used in a filter.
      Freeform filter tool
    2. Double-click the required field. Press Ctrl+space again and select the operator from the list. Type an appropriate value and click the apply filter Apply filter.
    3. Add other fields and values to the filter by typing directly or press Ctrl+space and select from the menu.
    4. You can save the filter with the layout. Click the down arrow to the right of the filter tool to open the View menu. Select Save Layout As.... In the Save layout dialog, check Include current filter.
  5. Click a column header to sort the data in ascending order for that column. Click the column header again to sort in descending order. Click again to remove the sort and return to a chronological listing. You can set the number of records to be returned in the parameters dialog. Click Windows > Preferences > CICS Performance Analyzer > Database Retrieval Parameters, select a value 25 - 10,000 and click OK. For example, if you select 20, then twice click the column header QR TCB dispatch count average the sheet view displays the top 20 records for the highest QR TCB dispatch counts. If you sort on another column, the query is run again and the top 20 records for the new data subset are displayed. You can clear the sorting by clicking the Clear sort tool Clear sort tool at the upper right of the sheet view. For information about customizing the columns, equalizing the column widths, and saving and applying layouts see The Sheet view
  6. To look at the data from a single performance summary report, select that report from the Performance Summary tree. The list of records in the sheet view is updated.
    Note: The values specified in ApplID and Transaction ID are ignored when performance summary reports are selected for viewing, but you can still use filters in the sheet view.