Basic Query 9.0
Training Manual
Basic 9.0 Query
Cal State San Marcos
Training Manual
Table of Contents
SECTION 1 ............................................................................................................................... 1
SECTION 2 ............................................................................................................................... 2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
Accessing Query Manager ................................................................................... 3
Opening an Existing Query .................................................................................. 4
Running a Query ................................................................................................. 6
Setting Preferences ........................................................................................... 10
SECTION 3 ............................................................................................................................. 12
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
Selecting a Record ............................................................................................. 13
Selecting Fields .................................................................................................. 18
Removing Fields ................................................................................................ 21
Running Queries ................................................................................................ 23
Modifying Headings ........................................................................................... 26
Sorting Query Output ........................................................................................ 30
Adding Fields ..................................................................................................... 37
Using Translate Values ...................................................................................... 40
Changing Column Order .................................................................................... 45
Aggregate Functions .......................................................................................... 48
SECTION 4 ............................................................................................................................. 53
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
Adding Selection Criteria.................................................................................... 54
Criteria Components .......................................................................................... 59
Entering Criteria ................................................................................................ 61
Condition Type/Expression Combinations .......................................................... 65
Compound Selection Criteria and Effective Dates .............................................. 67
Effective Dating ................................................................................................. 70
Boolean Operators ............................................................................................. 72
SECTION 5 ............................................................................................................................. 86
5.1
Joining Two Tables ............................................................................................ 87
SECTION 6 ............................................................................................................................. 95
6.1
6.2
Validating Queries ............................................................................................. 95
Summary ........................................................................................................... 97
Appendix A - Table Definitions.............................................................................................. 98
Appendix B - Query Naming Convention Standards ........................................................... 99
Basic 9.0 Query
Cal State San Marcos
Training Manual
SECTION 1
Introduction
OVERVIEW
The intent of this course is to demonstrate the features of PeopleSoft Query Release
8.4. This course is designed to teach users how to create queries using PeopleSoft’s
Query tool via the web interface.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, you will be able to:






Open existing queries
Create new queries
Specify selection criteria and sorts
Generate run-time prompts
Send query results to Excel
Perform a simple join between two tables
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SECTION 2
Query Overview
OVERVIEW
This lesson reviews how to access Query, as well as how to run an existing query.
You will also learn about the various components of the query definition. In later
lessons, we will use this acquired knowledge to build and execute queries.
SECTION OBJECTIVES
By the end of this section, you will be able to:






Access Query
Understand new Query terminology
Open an existing query
Run an existing query
View query results
Set preferences
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2.1
Accessing Query Manager
To provide a quick introduction to Query, you will access and run an existing query.
Once you execute the query, the results will be displayed on the screen within a grid
control. Once you are logged on to PeopleSoft, perform the following steps to
access Query Manager.
Navigation:
Reporting Tools > Query > Query Manager
The Query Manager page displays. From the Query Manager page you can
open a query, modify an existing query, run an existing query, or create a new
query.
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2.2
Opening an Existing Query
For predefined queries, you can open and/or execute them easily. As new queries
are defined, they can be saved and executed as well.






Enter a part or all of the query name
For this example, type SMO_GL
Press the Search button
The list of available queries displays
Queries can be executed directly from this menu, by pressing the Run link,
however, for this class we will first open the query
Click the hyperlink for the SMO_GL_ACTUALS query
NOTE: Only queries that have been saved as “public,”
as indicated in the third column, are available to all
users. “Private” queries can only be accessed by the
person who created them. If you create a query for
public use, it may be wise for you to save an additional
copy as private, since public queries may be changed or
deleted by another user who has authority to do so.
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When the query opens, the
Fields page is initially
displayed. This page lists
the fields to be selected by
this query as well as a
number of each field’s
properties as pertains to the
query.
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2.3
Running a Query
There are several different ways you can run a query. In addition, there are several
different places you can run the query to. For example, you can run the query to
the online grid control on your monitor and from there you can download to
Microsoft Excel.


To run a query, select the Preview Tab at the top.
Enter the run-time prompts and press the “OK” button. When the query has
finished running, the results are displayed in a new window in a grid format.
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

To run the output to an Excel spreadsheet click the Download to Excel
hyperlink:
The spreadsheet will be displayed in Excel. (See instructions for the correct
settings.)
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

To save the file, click on the File/Save As from Excel and change the file type to
Excel (.xls).
Give the file a name and press SAVE.
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2.4
Setting Preferences
You are able to control the look and feel of your Query Manager by setting your own
preferences on your system.

Click the Preferences hyperlink.
The Query Preferences page allows you to control the display of records by either
description or name and description.

“Name and description” is selected. Do not change.

The “Enable Auto Join” checkbox is used to automatically determine the join
conditions when a new record component is added. Do not change.
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SECTION 3
Creating a Query
OVERVIEW
This lesson illustrates how to create and execute a new query. In addition, we will
save and modify the query. Building on these skills, we will then make the query
more complex by adding such operations as sorts, aggregate functions and
Translate Table values.
SECTION OBJECTIVES
By the end of this section, you will be able to:






Create queries
Save queries
Change headings
Sort query output
Use the Translate Table
Use aggregate functions such as count and average
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3.1
Selecting a Record
Let’s create a new query that will produce a list of Vendors. We will start with some
very simple concepts and build on these skills to create a more complete and useful
query.
The first step in creating a query is selecting a record. For example, if you want
Vendors, select the Vendor record. There are several different methods to select a
record from this page. You can search by Name (shown below) or Description
where either begins with (shown below) or contains certain letters.
Select the Create New Query Link
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Drop-downs
show available
search options
Note: Refer to the last
section of this guide for a list
of the most frequently used
records in the system.

For our example, leave the drop-down values as they are and type the first
few characters of the record name (“VEN” in the example shown below), and
then press the Search button.

Click the Add Record hyperlink next to the record to add to the query.
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Note: For effective dated tables, you be told that an effective date criteria has been
automatically added for this effective dated record. (This is not an effective dated
table) Select OK.
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Once a record has been selected, the Query page is activated. All fields contained
in the selected record, VENDOR, are displayed.
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Activity #1 - To create a list of all Vendors, select the VENDOR record using one of
the navigation options defined.
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3.2
Selecting Fields
The next step in defining a query is to select the fields that will comprise the output
columns.
Navigation options for selecting fields:

Option 1: Manually select individual fields by clicking on the desired
checkboxes to the left of the field(s).
Hint: Fields are in
record order. To view
the fields in Alpha order
press the A/Z tab. Or,
click Ctrl/F and type the
name.
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OR

Option 2: Select all fields by pressing Check All Fields button.
Warning: Some tables
are so large that
selecting all fields can be
very resource-intensive
and cause your query to
take much longer to run.
Do not use this option
on large tables!
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Activity #2 - Create a Vendor list, select the SETID, VENDOR_ID,
VENDOR_NAME_SHORT, NAME1, VENDOR_STATUS, VENDOR_CLASS,
VENDOR_PERSISTENCE, and VNDR_STATUS_PO fields using one of the navigation
options defined. Follow the example as a guideline.

Select the Fields page to view the selected fields and their properties.
The column order is indicated in the
column titled “Col”. The sequence
number represents the left to right
order of the displayed fields in the
query output.
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3.3
Removing Fields
To remove a field from your query output, press the “Delete” (“-“) button on the
field’s line.
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Activity #3 - Modify the Vendor list by removing the VENDOR_PERSISTENCE and
VNDR_STATUS_PO fields, so that the remaining query fields are as shown below.
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3.4
Running Queries
Prior to running a new query, you will want to save it.


Press the Save button at the bottom of the page to save the new query.
Enter the query name (use a prefix of “SMO_”, to indicate a San Marcos
custom query), a short description, the query type (in this case “User”), and
the owner (in this case “Private”). For these exercises ONLY, also include
your initials at the end of the query name and name the query
SMO_VNDR_LIST_your inititals). Initials are not required in Production.
Include your
initials in the
query name.
See Appendix B for Recommended naming conventions.
Note: Be sure to avoid using spaces in the query name or you will receive an error
message.
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Notice that the query name changes from “New Unsaved Query” to
“SMO_VNDR_LIST_ (your initials)”
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Click the Preview Tab to execute the query.
The output will be displayed in the same window:
To return to the query, select the Fields Tab.
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3.5
Modifying Headings
The text listed in the “Heading Text” column will be used for the headings in your
query output to the grid control and Excel.
Let’s change the heading for VENDOR_ID to “Vendor ID” and the heading for
VENDOR_STATUS to “Vendor Status”.

Press the Edit button on the field line you wish to change the heading for.
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To modify field headings:




In the “Heading” group box, click on the “Text” radio button
Select and click in the “Heading Text” field
Type new heading text into the text box
Press the OK button
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Save the changes to the query and rerun it.

The modified headings are shown in the resultant output.
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Activity #4 - Modify the Vendor list changing the headings of the VENDOR_ID and
VENDOR_STATUS fields to be “Vendor ID” and “Vendor Status.” SAVE your changes
and rerun your query. Verify your results with the above example.
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3.6
Sorting Query Output
The numbers in the “Ord” column represent which fields your query is using to sort
the output. Unless you specify a specific sort order, the query will list the results in
the order that the data is retrieved from the database.
Let’s sort the output by the NAME field. There are two ways to specify the Sort
Order:

From the Fields tab press the Edit button for the field to change sort order.
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
Specify the sort order in the “Order By Number” field in “Order By” group box.
Press OK.
OR
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
From the Fields tab press the Reorder/Sort button for the field to change sort
order.
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
Specify the sort order in the “Order By Number” field. Press OK.
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The number “1” now displays in the “Ord” column for NAME. More than one field
may be selected for sort criteria. For example, you could sort the query by NAME
within STATUS. When you select more than one field to sort by, the number
displayed in the “Ord” column indicates the sequence in which the fields are used to
sort the output. For now, we are putting this query in NAME sequence only.
NOTE: The system will sort the output in ascending order for the field. If you want
to sort the output in descending order, click on the “Descending” checkbox. If you
choose to sort the output in descending order, a ‘D’ will be displayed in the “Ord”
column.

Save your changes to query and rerun.
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The modified sort order is shown in the resultant output.
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Activity #5 - Sort the query by NAME in descending order. Follow the above
example as a guideline.
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3.7
Adding Fields
In order to expand our Vendor list, let’s add the Address Sequence Number Order
and Entered fields. By sorting the display of field names listed on the Query page
in alphabetical order, it will be easy to find the new fields to add to the query.


Go to the Query tab
Press the AZ button to display field names in alphabetical order:

Now that the fields are sorted alphabetically, find the
ADDR_SEQ_NUM_ORDR and ENTERED_BY fields.

SAVE changes to the query and rerun.
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The new fields are shown in the resultant output.
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Activity #6 - Add the fields ADDR_SEQ_NUM_ORDR and ENTERED_BY to your
query. Follow the above example as a guideline.
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3.8
Using Translate Values
When you scroll to the right of the query control grid, you will notice that the field
VENDOR_STATUS contains a code which indicates the status of the Vendor. These
codes are defined in the Translate Table, which also contains a more meaningful
description of what the code means.
You may choose either the 10 character short description, or 30 character long
description for the field. When a code is translated, the description displays in the
query output instead of the code. We will modify the query to translate the code for
VENDOR_STATUS to the long description.




From the Fields page press the Edit button for the field to employ use of
translate values.
Select the “Long” radio button in the “Translate Value” group box and the
“Field” radio button in the “Effective Date for Short/Long” group box.
Select the EFFDT field in the drop-down box.
Press OK.
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NOTE: Notice that there is
now an “L” in the “XLAT”
column on the
VENDOR_STATUS line.
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

Save changes to the query.
Rerun the query.
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Notice that in the “Status” column, you now see the translate value descriptions.
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Activity #7 – Change the VENDOR_STATUS field to the Long Translate value.
Also, change the VENDOR_CLASS to show the Long Translate value. Follow the
above example as a guideline.
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3.9
Changing Column Order
Often it is necessary to rearrange the order in which the columns display to achieve
the desired output. To change the column order, follow the steps below.
Two navigation options for changing the column order:
OR

Option 1: To change the order for a single field, press the Edit button to go
to the Edit Field Properties page. Specify new column number in “Column”
group box.

Option 2: To change multiple fields, press the Reorder/Sort button.
Multiple field
changes
Single field
changes
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Sort order
Indicate new
column order.


Specify new column sequence numbers in the “New Column” fields.
Save changes to the query and rerun.
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Activity #8 – Change the column order of your fields to display “NAME1” before
VENDOR_NAME_SHORT.
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3.10 Aggregate Functions
An aggregate function allows the user to perform various predefined summary
options such as counting and averaging.


To establish an aggregate function, press the Edit button next to the field to
which you are going to apply the aggregate. This will take you to the Edit
Field Properties page.
Select the radio button in the “Aggregate” group box for the aggregate
function you wish to apply.
NOTE: In order to undo
an aggregate function,
follow the instructions
above and choose the
radio button labeled
“None”.
Important Note: Aggregates cannot be used to count or sum in every type of
query. If you are selecting multiple fields that will generate unique and
distinguishing results, the count/sum may not produce the totals you are expecting.
For example, the Count feature cannot be used in the above query to count the
number of Vendors. The data being requested for each row is unique, so there is
no way for the system to present the unique data and also to provide a count.
Let’s look at an example where an aggregate can be used.
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Using the VENDOR record, we will create a new query that counts the Address for
each Vendor.





Click on New Query hyperlink to create a new query
Add the VENDOR record to query
Select the VENDORID field
Select the ADDR_SEQ_NUM_ORDR field
Press Edit button on ADDR_SEQ_NUM_ORDR field line to go to the Edit
Field Properties page
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
Select the “Count” radio button in the “Aggregate” group box.

Preview the query.
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Activity #9 – Create a new query using the VENDOR table. Select VENDOR_ID and
ADDR_SEQ_NUM_ORDR. Count the number of Address sequences for each Vendor.
Follow the above example as a guideline.
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SECTION 4
Using Selection Criteria and Prompts
OVERVIEW
In this lesson you will learn how to specify selection criteria in a query. Selection
criteria are used to restrict the rows selected from the database when the query is
executed. In addition, you will learn how to create run-time prompts.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this section, you will be able to:


Create selection criteria
Create run-time prompts
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4.1
Adding Selection Criteria
Criteria are “filters” that are used to select only specific rows of data from the
database. Criteria can be established from both the Fields and Criteria pages.
Using our Vendor list as an example, you may want to create a listing of Vendors by
SetID or only active Vendors. The query we created in the previous section gives us
all Vendors. Let’s now add selection criteria to the query. We do not want to modify
the query we previously created and saved, so we will make a copy of the query
first by doing a “Save As” command.

Open the Vendor list query called SMO_VNDR_LIST_(your initials)
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
Click the Save As hyperlink and change the query name to
SMO_VNDRS_ACTIVE_SMCMP_(your initials).

Click OK.
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The query looks like this.
Option 2
Option 1
There are a couple of different ways to add criteria to a query. Both of these
approaches will take you to the Edit Criteria Properties page.


Option 1: Click on the “funnel-plus” button in the “Add Criteria” column
for the individual field for which you want to add a criterion.
Option 2: Go to the Criteria page and press the Add Criteria button.
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Using the first method will auto-populate some fields for you.

You will need to select the Condition Type and Define the Constant.
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However, the second method is more comprehensive. Navigating to the Criteria
page we see.
Note: This method is more advanced and will not be reviewed in this basic Query
Training guide. However, below defines the components and their use.
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4.2
Criteria Components
The Criteria page together with the Edit Criteria Properties page, allow you to
define criteria expressions to selectively retrieve information.
Criteria Logic:
Logic Component
Logical
Expression 1
Condition Type
Expression 2
Definition
Contains the Boolean operator that represents how the criteria
rows are evaluated. Blank for the first criteria, subsequent rows
default to AND but can be changed to OR.
Used to specify what you are comparing.
State how your Expression 1 is to be compared with your
Expression 2.
You can compare the Expression 1 to a constant, a field from
another record, an expression, a subquery, or values entered
using a run-time prompt.
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Command
buttons
Logic components
Command Buttons:
The buttons on this page are used to manipulate query criteria.
Button
Add Criteria
Definition
Add Criteria
Delete
Remove existing criteria
Edit
Edit existing criteria
Group Criteria
Add or remove parentheses
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4.3
Entering Criteria
Let’s add criteria to our query to select Vendors with a SETID – SMCMP. To enter
criteria for the Vendor SETID field, press the Add Criteria button. This will take
you to the Edit Criteria Properties page.





The “Field” radio button is selected in the “Choose Expression 1 Type” group
box. Leave the default selection.
The Condition Type defaults to “equal to”. Leave it set to the default value.
The “Constant” radio button defaults in the “Choose Expression 2 Type” group
box. Leave the default value for the moment.
Enter the SETID you want to restrict VENDORS to in the “Constant field” within
the “Define Constant” group box within the “Expression 2” group box.
Click OK.
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
Save the query and rerun it.
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The results displayed will be limited to Vendors with SETID equal SMCMP.
Activity #10 - Add the criteria for SETID in your query. Limit the results to
“SMCMP.” Follow the above example as a guideline.
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4.4
Condition Type/Expression Combinations
Each Condition Type uses specific expressions for the “Expression 2” group box.
Condition types will be covered in more detail in Section 4.13.
Condition Type
equal to
not equal to
greater than
not greater than
less than
not less than
in list
not in list
between
not between
like
not like
exists
not exists
is null
is not null
in tree
not in tree
Expression 2
constant
field
expression
subquery
prompt
list
subquery
constant-constant
constant-field
constant-expression
field-constant
field-field
field-expression
expression- constant
expression-field
expression-expression
constant
prompt
subquery
tree option
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4.5
Compound Selection Criteria and Effective Dates
Often you will have to create a query that requires multiple selection criteria against
one or more fields. When you have multiple conditions, you must use one of the
Boolean operators to relate one criterion to another.
The operators available on the Criteria page are AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses.
The operators AND, OR, and NOT are used to show the relationship of one criteria
row to another. Parentheses are used to further define the relationship and define
the order in which the criteria are evaluated. If you do not use parentheses, the
criteria are evaluated in the order listed.
Let’s add criteria to qualify on VENDOR_STATUS as well as VENDOR_CLASS in our
query.



From the Fields page, press the “Add Criteria” icon on the VENDOR_STATUS
line.
Enter “A” into the “Constant” field within the “Expression 2” group box.
From the Fields page, press the “Add Criteria” icon on the VENDOR_CLASS
line.
Enter “R” into the “Constant” field within the “Expression 2” group box.
Press the OK button.

Resave the query and rerun.


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NOTE: Notice that the output displays rows with
a SETID equal to SMCMP, Vendor Status equal to
“Approved” AND Vendor Class equal to R. In
addition, the output is sorted by name in
ascending order.
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Activity #11 - Add the criteria for VENDOR_STATUS equal to “A” and
VENDOR_CLASS equal to “R” to your query. Follow the above example as a
guideline.
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4.6
Effective Dating
Special attention needs to be given to the use of effective dates in the system. The
system will attempt to automatically include the effective date in your query based
on a default. In most situations, this will be the most current row of information
that is less than or equal to the current date. However, this may not be the
information that you need for your report.
Let’s look at various issues with respect to effective dates:
1. Operators that will extract one row of table information by effective
date:
Only certain operators will obtain one row of effective-dated information. These are
the following:

Eff Date <

Eff Date <=

Eff Date >

Eff Date >=

First Eff Date

Last Eff Date
These operators tell the system to
obtain the max row (last row,
or very first row in the case of
“First Eff Date”) of data that
meets the requested criteria.
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If you are not using the operators that limit the number of rows retrieved for an
effective date, you may get multiple rows of information back for each record. For
instance, if you asked for all effective dates less than July 1, 2004, the system would
retrieve one row of information for each row it found prior to that date.
2. Situations where you will have two effective-date criteria for the same
field:
There will be certain situations where you want, for example, the most current row
of information, but only for Funds that have transactions between a specified date
range. In this case, you would need to use the operator to obtain the row less than
or equal to the current date, and a second criteria to limit only those rows within the
requested timeframe. If you only ask for effective dates between the timeframes,
you may get multiple rows for each Fund.
3. Multiple Transactions on the Same Date:
Remember that the system stores multiple transactions on the same date. These
are distinguished by a sequence number. However, if you used one of the operators
above that only bring back a single row of data, you may not capture all the needed
transactions. For example, say that you want to create a report of all new Funds as
of July 1, 2004. If your effective date criteria was “Effective Date <= July, 1, 2004”,
the system would only return the last transactions entered that day. The Funds may
have been entered prior to another action/reason on the same day.
4. Frequency of table update:
Remember that some tables hold system values are only updated infrequently and
that Fund data may not yet have transactions that reflect the latest system table
values.
5. Joins (which will be discussed in detail later):
Remember to check the automatic defaults for effective-dating that the system
performs when doing a join. It will often attempt to make the effective date of the
second table less than or equal to that of the first table’s effective date. This may
not be accurate, depending on the tables you are using, and the information you are
trying to retrieve.
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4.7
Boolean Operators
When you need to use multiple fields or the same field more than once for selection
criteria, the operators of OR, NOT or parentheses may also have to be selected.
If you wanted to see all Active Vendors excluding those who are not in
VENDOR_CLASS equal to “R”, follow these steps:

From the Criteria page, on the VENDOR_STATUS line, change the value in
the “Logical” drop-down list from “AND” to “AND NOT”
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OR-

Change the Condition Type to “Not Equal To.”
Note: 2nd method –
which produces the
same results
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
Resave the query and rerun it.
NOTE: Notice that the output displays rows with a VENDOR_STATUS equal to
“Approved” AND a VENDOR_CLASS NOT equal to “R” only. In addition, the output
is sorted by name in ascending order.
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Now let’s modify the criteria to select Vendors that are Approved or have a Vendor
Class equal to “R”.




From the Fields page, change the Sort to Vendor Status, Descending.
Press the OK button
From the Criteria page and on the VENDOR_STATUS line, change the
condition type to “Equal To”.
From the Criteria page and on the VENDOR_STATUS line, change the value
in the “Logical” drop-down list to “OR” from “AND”
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
Resave the query and rerun:
NOTE: Notice that the output displays rows with a Vendor Status equal to “A” or
Vendor Class equal to “R”. In addition, the output is sorted by Vendor Status in
descending order.
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Activity #12 – Follow the steps above and add the criteria to select Approved
Vendors or Vendors with a Class of “R”.
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4.8
Reordering Criteria
To change the order of the selection criteria, you must delete all criteria and then
add back each criterion in the desired order.
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4.9
Removing Criteria
Let’s remove the criteria row for the SETID, Vendor Status, and Vendor Class. In
order to accomplish this, follow the steps listed below:




Press
Press
Press
Press
the Delete button (“-“) on the SETID line
the Delete button (“-“) on the VENDOR_STATUS line
the Delete button (“-“) on the VENDOR_CLASS line
SAVE to save the changes and rerun the query.
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Activity #14 – Follow the steps above and delete all criteria. Also, change the Sort
back to Sort by NAME1, ascending.
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4.10 Run-time Prompts
There are times when you may want to use a different value for a field each time
the query is run. An example of this might be a Vendor listing report for a particular
SETID. A run-time prompt allows you to enter a value for a specific field at the
time the query is executed. This eliminates the necessity of having many different
queries that are virtually the same except for one or more variables.
Run-time prompts are available for all expression types except is null and in tree, as
well as their negative counterparts. You can have multiple prompts in a query.
Let’s establish a run-time prompt on the SETID field.



From the Fields page, press the Add Criteria button
Choose the default, SETID field for the “Expression 1 group box”
Select the “Prompt” radio button in the “Choose Expression 2” group box:

Click on the New Prompt hyperlink in the “Define Prompt” group box within
the “Expression 2“ group box:
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NOTE: If you would like to
change the run-time prompt
heading, then click on the
“Heading Type” drop-down
list and select “Text”. Then
enter the new heading in the
“Heading Text” text box.


Click the OK button to return to the Edit Criteria Properties page
Click the OK button to return to the Fields page
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
Click on the Prompt tab to view the Prompt criteria

Resave the query and rerun.
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
Enter the SETID search for and press the OK button:
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Activity #15 –Build a run-time prompt on the SETID field.
Follow the above example as a guideline.
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Save the query.
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SECTION 5
Creating a Simple Join
OVERVIEW
In this lesson you will learn how to create a query utilizing a simple join between
two tables. This technique is used when a query requires data that is not all
contained in one table.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Create a query in which two tables are joined on common keys.
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5.1
Joining Two Tables
Joining tables greatly extends Query’s reach by enabling the user to combine data
from multiple tables into a single query. For example, the VENDOR table contains
the VENDOR name data, but not the Vendor Addresses. In order to include both the
Vendor Name and Addresses on the same report, you would have to join the
VENDOR table to the VENDOR_ADDR table. Most of the time, it is important to join
on all common keys to prevent unexpected results and performance problems.
Fortunately, Query does a lot of work for us. In the following example, the Query
tool takes care of joining on common keys for us.



Create a new query by clicking the New Query hyperlink
Add the VENDOR table to the query
Select the SETID, VENDOR_ID, NAME1, and the VENDOR_STATUS fields:
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Let’s join the VENDOR_ADDR table to get the address for the Vendors.



Click on the Records Tab.
Enter VEN in the Search Criteria.
Select the Join Record Link for the VENDOR_ADDR table.
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The system proposes the join criteria.

Click Add Criteria to accept the default; in this case the SETID and
VENDOR_ID from the VENDOR table should equal the SETID and
VENDOR_ID from the VENDOR_ADDR table
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The VENDOR_ADDR table will be added as Table “B”

Select the ADDRESS_SEQ_NO, ADDRESS1, CITY, STATE, and POSTAL fields.
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The Fields page will look like this:
Notice that the system identifies fields
from the 2 tables by including the
prefix of “A” or “B” in front of the field
names.
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

Go to the Criteria tab and see the new criteria.
Using this method, the system displays the join criteria here The Criteria
page will look like this.
Note: Always pay special attention to
how the effective date logic is added.
Often, you will not want the default logic
of <= the field from the other table. In
many cases, the effective date should be
<= the current date!




Go to the Fields Tab, Sort by NAME1.
Add criteria to the SETID field, restricting the query to data where SETID =
SMCMP only.
Save the new query as SMO_VNDR_ADDR_your initials.
Run the new query.
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Activity #16 – Build a new query using the VENDOR table. Select the SETID,
VENDOR_ID, NAME1, and the VENDOR_STATUS fields. Sort by NAME1. Select
SETID equal to SMCMP. Join the table to the VENDOR_ADDR table and select the
ADDRESS_SEQ_NO, ADDRESS1, CITY, STATE, and POSTAL fields. Use the above
example as a guide.
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SECTION 6
6.1
Validating Queries
Your query will extract data from the system exactly the way you have asked for it.
However, if there is a problem in the way you ask for the information (i.e. your
criteria), you may get unexpected results. Here are some hints and suggestions to
help ensure you obtain accurate information:

The safest way to build a query is to do it incrementally. In other words, save
and run your query as you add each criteria and look at the count of the records
after each run. Make sure that the last criteria you added did not suddenly
exclude needed records.

Be very careful when adding parenthesis to your criteria. Data will be
included/excluded inadvertently if your logic is incorrect.

Make sure you are using the correct fields to limit your criteria. If you are not
familiar with how the data is entered into the system, call the team lead
responsible for the information or SOD, to find out the best way to do your
search. This knowledge often comes with experience using query and the
tables.

Not every field on each table is populated. Be careful not to use criteria on a
field that has no values on the table you are using. The best way to find this out
is to select the field first and run it without any criteria, in order to view what the
actual data on the table looks like. Then, go back and input your criteria.

Where possible, it’s sometimes helpful to run a separate query from a table that
has similar information to compare results.

Be extremely careful when using effective-dating (refer to Section 4.6).

Remember that tables that hold system values are only updated infrequently and
that certain data may not yet have transactions that reflect the latest system
table values.

Remember to check the automatic defaults for effective-dating that the system
performs when doing a join.
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
If you are not using the operators that limit the number of rows retrieved for
an effective date, you will get multiple rows of information back for each
record.

Remember that even when you know the exact date the transaction
occurred, the action you are looking for may be one of multiple transactions
stored for that date.
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6.2
Summary
Congratulations! You have now gotten your “learner’s permit” to try your hand at
creating your own reports. A few words of caution:

Do not attempt to join more than two tables together until you have taken the
Advanced Query class.

Do not use any tables that are not referenced in the attached Appendix without
first checking with SOD support.

Do double-check your effective dates and verify your data by cross-checking it
with other table information, if possible.

Do call SOD if you have any questions, or experience any problems with the
system in obtaining results!
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Appendix A - Table Definitions
See handout
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Appendix B - Query Naming Convention Standards
Ie: SMO_AP_INVOICES_PAID


Custom Queries will always begin with SMO

The application the query is for:

AP = Accounts Payable

VNDR = Vendor Master

PO = Purchase Orders

REQ = Requisitions

GL = General Ledger

BD = Budget

COA = Chart Of Accounts
Descriptive Title
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