Zoom or summary variables

Zoom and summary selectors¶

FastStats selectors can be configured so that you can select at multiple levels. You can select quickly and flexibly at any of the levels and can view the selection from any of the other levels.

Postal Area is an example of a summary level selector.

Postal Area is defined as a grouping of Postal District, which in turn is a grouping of Postal Sector. The Postal District and Postal Area variables have been created using the Combine Categories Wizard.

Creating a selection using the Postal Area variable displays the following pick-list. The Postal Area (i.e. "AB Aberdeen") can be expanded by pressing the '+' symbol to the left of the row and show all the Postal Districts it contains. Then one of these Postal Districts (i.e. "AB10 Aberdeen") can be expanded to show the Postal Sectors it contains (such as "AB10 1").

By selecting a value at the top level, the related lower level items are automatically selected. By highlighting Aberdeen at the top level, Postal Districts AB10 through to AB56 are automatically selected at the lower level.

To de-select any of these values, click the relevant Include check-box to uncheck the selected value.

Notice that the highlight bar at the higher level changes to a lighter shade. This indicates that there is only a partial selection at the lower level. Also the remaining codes are now shown as ticks rather than green squares. (See last paragraph for further explanation.)

At the top of the pick-list window, a drop-down list allows you to choose at which level of detail you want to see the selector. If this value is changed to Postal District then the Postal Areas won't be displayed and all the Postal Districts will be shown together (with each Postal Sector still grouped under the relevant Postal District).

You have the choice of selecting all the currently available codes within a summary group, or the whole summary group (i.e. "CV1, CV2, …, CV34" or just "CV"). If all the codes currently within a summary group are chosen (i.e. have a tick next to them), but then a new code is added in a new build of the system (i.e. a new "CV99" Postcode District is created and added to the data), the new code will not be selected. However, if you simply chose the whole summary group (i.e. "CV" with a tick) then when the new code is added it will automatically be included in the selection. Note that existing codes are selected at the lower level with a grey square.