Introduction to Cross-Tabs

Cross-tabs are highly formatted and densely populated reports that look a lot like a spreadsheet. This chapter gives you an understanding of how and when to use cross-tabs for your reporting needs.

A cross-tab is a fully summarized set of cells in a grid format. It summarizes values both across as well as down. It is a compact representation of information that is grouped on two different axes. There can be more than one level of grouping on either axis (row or column).

A row goes across the page with the header on the left or right, whereas a column runs down the page with the header at the top or bottom. The intersections between the rows and columns are called cells. Cells are places where a value to be summarized displays. Totals in the cells are summarized for each row and column as well as the break points for the different levels of groupings.