Today I want to discuss Alternate states in QlikView, but before we start on Alternate states, we need to understand Attach/detach functionality in QlikView.

In QlikView, data is associated based on the common field names in one or more table.
For e.g. If you have 3 Tables, when a selection is made in one table, data elements in other tables which are associated are displayed in ‘white’ and the elements that are NOT associated are displayed in grey. A chart based on this data model responds to user selections and displays values based on the selection made by the user

Attached or Associative chart. This chart will display value according to user selection i.e. ProductName = ML Mountain Frame-Black, 38

In some scenarios, though it is important to detach your specific sheet object/s from user selection. When you detach a sheet object, it does not respond to the user selection but displays data without filters. When user re-attaches the object, it instantly updates to reflect the current state of the selections.

Detached chart, will NOT display values according to user selection, i.e. ProductName = Adjustable Race

Since the chart is detached It does not respond to user selection of ProductName = Adjustable Race and still displaying values where Product Name = ML Mountain Frame-Black, 38

Alternate state takes this concept further and let user create multiple states using state identifiers. All objects in a specific state respond to user selection in that state. Objects in a given state are not affected by the user selections in the other states.

Alternate states can be very useful for comparative analysis. You can assign list boxes to different Alternate states and compare charts associated with each of these states.

In my next blog Alternate State -part 2 , i will discuss how to create and use Alternate states.