Show Steps

Select Show Steps from the Tools menu to analyze the traversal path to be used in the process. Use Show Steps to evaluate the tables and relationships and display the steps performed to select the data. This evaluation can ensure that you retrieve the desired set of data.

Example

Assume that you want to select data from three tables: CUSTOMERS, ORDERS, and DETAILS. The CUSTOMERS table is the Start Table and rows are selected using Point and Shoot.

The ORDERS table is a child of CUSTOMERS, and DETAILS is a child of the ORDERS. The steps in the process are:

  1. Extract Rows from Start Table DBMS.PSTUSER.CUSTOMERS. No Point and Shoot List, Selection Criteria or Statistical Controls used, therefore Start Table need not be revisited, even if part of a Cycle.
  2. Extract Rows from DBMS.PSTUSER.ORDERS which are Children of Rows Previously Extracted from DBMS.PSTUSER.CUSTOMERS in Step 1 using Relationship RCO.
  3. Extract Rows from DBMS.PSTUSER.DETAILS which are Children of Rows Previously Extracted from DBMS.PSTUSER.ORDERS in Step 2 using Relationship ROD.

Increasing Complexity

The steps in a process may be repeated any number of times according to relationships you select and criteria you specify.

Note: When a relationship is traversed to select parent rows for child rows already selected, any selection criteria for the parent table are ignored.

In a single step, rows may be selected from more than one table, or to satisfy more than one relationship. For example, if the DETAILS table is related to both the CUSTOMERS table and the ORDERS table, Step 3 is similar to the following:

Any table may be revisited several times in successive steps. Cycles may also be involved. A cycle causes a set of tables to be traversed repeatedly until a complete pass through the cycle does not result in selecting additional rows.