Add/edit rule
Use the Add Rule and Edit Rule dialogs to define or edit a rule that is used to show, hide, or color items in a visualization.
Some settings in these dialogs are only applicable to rules for showing or hiding items and some settings are only applicable to coloring.


| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Column | Specifies which column the rule should be applied to. |
| Rule type | Specifies which rule type to add. Which types are available depends on the data type of the column the rule is applied to. See below for descriptions of all available rule types. |
| Value | Defines the value or values the rule should apply to. The available options depend on the selected rule type. See below for descriptions of all the options in this menu. |
| When this rule is matched | [Applicable to show/hide rules.] |
| Show items | Select this option to show all the items that match this rule. |
| Hide items | Select this option to hide all the items that match this rule. |
| Apply individually for each trellis panel |
[Applicable to show/hide rules.] Select this option if the visualization is trellised and you want the rule to be applied once for each trellis panel. Example: If you have set up a rule to show which two product categories that sold best during a year, you might want to see them per region and use trellising to accomplish that. Rule applied individually for each trellis panel: ![]() Here the rule was applied individually for each trellis panel, which lets you see the two categories that sold best in each region. Rule applied once to the entire visualization: ![]() Here the rule was applied to the entire visualization instead. This lets you see which two product categories sold best totally. Note that you still see the data per region. In this example, fruit in region south sold best during the year, and after that came fruit in region west. |
| Color | [Applicable to color rules.]
Specifies the color to use for the rule. |
| Display name | Optionally specify a descriptive name for the rule. The name is used to identify the rule in the Visualization properties, and it can be shown in the legend of the visualization. Leave the field blank if you want to use the default rule name. |
Available rule types
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Top | Shows, hides, or colors the top number of
items. Specify the number of items in the Value field.
Note: In some cases more than the defined number of items might
be shown/hidden/colored. For example, if the rule states that the top three
items should be shown, and four items represent the highest value, then all
four of these items will be shown.
|
| Bottom | Shows, hides, or colors the bottom number
of items. Specify the number of items in the Value field.
Note: In some cases more than the defined number of items might
be shown/hidden/colored. For example, if the rule states that the bottom three
items should be shown, and four items represent the lowest value, then all four
of these items will be shown.
|
| Between | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values between the two specified values. Specify the values in the two Value fields. |
| Equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values that are equal to the specified value. |
| Not equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values that are not equal to the specified value. |
| Greater than | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values greater than the specified value. |
| Greater than or equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values greater than or equal to the specified value. |
| Less than | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values less than the specified value. |
| Less than or equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items representing values less than or equal to the specified value. |
| Boolean expression | Lets you define a boolean expression. All the items for which the expression is true will be shown, hidden, or colored (depending on the type of rule and what you select). To learn more about custom expressions in general, see Custom expressions. |
Additional rule types
These rules are available for columns containing string values, in combination with certain aggregation methods.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items that correspond exactly to the specified string value. |
| Not equal to | Shows, hides, or colors all the items that do not correspond exactly to the specified string value. |
| Contains | Shows, hides, or colors all the items that contain the specified string value. |
| Starts with | Shows, hides, or colors all the items that start with the specified string value. |
| Ends with | Shows, hides, or colors all the items that end with the specified string value. |
| Boolean expression | Lets you define a boolean expression. All the items for which the expression is true will be shown, hidden, or colored (depending on the type of rule and what you select). To learn more about custom expressions in general, see Custom expressions. |
Available options in the Value/Point menu
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Value | Select this option to specify an absolute
value. Type the value of your choice in the field and press Enter.
For dates, you can also click the calendar icon,
Note: Because the value is absolute, it can end up outside the
range of values if you filter out data or select another column to apply the
rule to, or to color by.
|
| Min | Sets the value to the minimum value in the data. |
| Max | Sets the value to the maximum value in the data. |
| Average | Sets the value to the average value in the data. |
| Median | Sets the value to the median value in the data. |
| Percent | In this case the value is defined by a
percentage value (P). The value is obtained by moving the given percentage of
the currently filtered range (max value - min value) above the minimum value:
Rule or point value = min value + P/100.0*(max value - min
value)
Note: With the present definition, 0% corresponds to the min
value and 100% corresponds to the max value of the current filtering range.
|
| Percentile | Sets the value to a percentile value. |
| Custom expression | Select this option to define the value with a custom expression. To get a basic understanding of custom expressions, see Custom expressions. |

