You may set up one or more Import/Export Databases in any location on your PC. Each database is a collection of user named tables, according to the type of data being stored (assumptions, projections, table data). Each database in total is stored in a Microsoft database object, which is named impexp.mdb.
To view and work with projections that have previously been exported to an Import/Export database, choose View Import/Export Database option from the Import/Export Menu, which will open the Import/Export Viewer window.
At the top left of the viewer, you will see the location of the file impexp.mdb which you are currently viewing in the window below. You may view a different Import/export database file by clicking on the .. button to the right and browsing your directory structures. Click "Refresh List" to obtain a list of tables after you select the new location of the database.
Each row in the list represents one database table found in the Import/Export database being viewed. Any row where the Type is "Projections" in the fifth column of this list is a table of projections exported from AXIS.
There are 4 ways to use this table of projections data:
You can view the table contents directly within AXIS.
You can use the AXIS Comparator to analyze the projections.
You can view and manipulate this table outside AXIS using Microsoft Access, for example.
You can send the table to Excel, FoxPro, Lotus or a printfile outside of AXIS for analysis.
To view a projections table, select the corresponding row in the list of tables in the Import/Export Viewer window and click on the View button. Alternatively, you may right-click on the row and select View from the action menu. (Note that the action menu for this list is also available by clicking the Action button in the Viewer).
Each row of the view contains both identifying information and projection data for a number of periods. As this row may be very long, we recommend that you maximize this window.
There are 9 columns of identifying information at the start of each row which enable you to perform database operations on the table, as follows:
|
Column Title |
Contents |
|
No |
the sequential order in which the rows were originally exported from AXIS into this table |
|
Object |
the AXIS object type used to generate this row of the projections (Cell, Subfund, Fund or Office) |
|
Run ID |
unique Run ID number assigned to each set of projections exported to the database in a single process |
|
Scenario ID |
the ID number of the scenario selected at the time of export |
|
Override ID |
the ID number of the Cell Override applied in a batch process (0 otherwise) |
|
ID |
the ID number of the specific AXIS object used to generate this row of the projections |
|
Name |
the 40 character name of the specific AXIS object used to generate this row of the projections |
|
Row |
the full title of this line of the projections (not necessarily unique within a custom report because the report designer allows you to repeat line titles) |
|
RowNo |
the row number from the particular report exported (a useful index if the table contains only data exported using the same report, even if that data comes from different objects in the system). |
You can also click on any row and press the Run Info button to show identifying information about the process used to create that row and all other rows with the same Run ID. This information includes the name of the dataset from which the projections were exported, the Scenario and Cell Override used, and also the time that the export job was run. There is also a notepad field which allows you to enter or review additional descriptive text with respect to each Run ID.
The above columns can be used to customize the sort order of your projections table. For example, if you have produced the table by running Batch Testing on a set of Subfunds using a range of Scenarios, you could set up your sort order as follows:
You can sort by RowNo by clicking on the RowNo header. This will group together the projection lines by title, and in the same order that they appeared in the selected report.
Next you can shift-click on the Id header to sort by Id to show the subfunds next to each other and in the same repeated order.
Now shift-click on Scenario Id so that you can compare the effect of varying the scenario on a given line within a given Subfund.
The AXIS Comparator can directly compare any two sets of projections in the same table.
To use the Comparator on a table of projections, select the table in the list of tables and click on the Analyze button. Alternatively, you may right-click on the name of the table in the Import/Export Viewer window and select Analyze from the action menu. (The action menu for this list is also available by clicking the Action button in the Viewer).
You will see a list of each combination of identifying fields for all projection rows included in the table. In our example above of projections exported from a Subfund Batch Testing run, you would see the run broken down by Subfund and by Scenario. Select any two rows and the Compare button will be enabled. Click on the Compare button and the Comparator will run using the two selected sets of projection data.
The Comparator displays the projections in a spreadsheet format with results of both runs for each row title in sequence. You may choose to show both results in which case those results which match are shown in a different colour than those that do not match. You can change the tolerance limits for matching by choosing Parameters under the Preferences menu. You can also filter the results to show only those rows containing mismatches by choosing Hide Insignificant Rows under the Preferences menu. You can also view the results in a number of different formats using the View menu, including differences or ratios of projected values, row by row.
Due to the amount of information, you may prefer to work in a maximized window - you can maximize the Comparator window and the spreadsheet itself. Your preference of window size will be remembered.
Under the View menu you can choose to show or hide the toolbar, and you can export the results to an Excel file using the File menu, or you can copy projections to the Windows clipboard using the Edit menu.
Currently this Comparator is only available for two sets of projections within one database table, but we plan to allow you to compare a set of projections in one table with a set of projections from another table. This feature will also allow you to compare projections in different formats (e.g. one set containing annual only, starting in 1998, the other set monthly for a year, starting in 1999, then annual).
You will need MS Access 95 (Access 7.0), or a later version.
Open Access and then open the database impexp.mdb in the path you have chosen for this Import/export database. Select the Tables tab and then you can open the particular projections table you wish to analyze. You have the full power of MS Access at your fingertips to perform queries, sorts, extracts, joins and so on.
Note that there are many other products, such as Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0 and Visual FoxPro which can also directly open MDB format files.
You can make a copy of the table outside AXIS in various industry standard file formats by right-clicking on the corresponding row in the list of tables in the Import/Export Viewer window and selecting "Send to" from the action menu. (Note that the action menu for this list is also available by clicking the Action button in the Viewer). We currently support sending to Excel, Lotus, FoxPro and two textfile formats: comma delimited or fixed width.