This is part of the SAP Lumira Discovery blog series.
Hierarchies play a big role in data analysis and ease of navigation. We have covered in earlier blogs the different kinds of hierarchies that SAP Lumira Discovery supports and best practices in building them. Unlike the previous version, the new cross tab and charts in SAP Lumira Discovery comes with robust drilldown and interaction capabilities. Following functionalities can be achieved using hierarchies:
- Drill up – Helps you drill a level up the hierarchy
- Drill down – Helps you drill a level down the hierarchy
- Drill by – Similar to drill down operation. The only difference is that it displays the initial level along with the one below.
- Drill path – It helps choose the drilldown path in case the dimensions have more than one hierarchy drilldown paths
Let’s consider an example with 3 levels (category -> sub-category -> name) of Product hierarchy. The image shows all drill options that can be leveraged using a detailed cross tab,

1. Drill Up
This functionality is leveraged when trying to move to the above level of the hierarchy. The above example of a custom hierarchy that has been drilled up to the highest level, showing Product Category and Sales value.


An example of a date hierarchy before applying Drill Up, showing both Year and Quarter.

2. Drill Down
The functionality is leveraged to go levels below the hierarchy without showing the above levels. The custom hierarchy after the Drill Down, where the analysis is done at the Product Sub-Category level but the filter is applied at the Product Category level.


3. Drill By
The functionality is leveraged to go levels below the hierarchy while also showing the levels above. The custom hierarchy after the Drill By, where the analysis is done at the Product Sub-Category and Product Category level.

The line chart to the lowest level of the date hierarchy using Drill By option, where we can see the Year, Quarters and Months

This information is based on the current product and roadmap and is bound to change.
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