Starting in SAS Visual Analytics version 8.2, the Data Tip role was expanded to allow categories, and a new role called Hidden was added. More details about each of these roles can be found in the "Working with Data Role Assignments" topic in the SAS Visual Analytics 8.2: User's Guide.

For each of these roles, you should not assign a category that increases the number of rows returned in the result set for the report object. Any category that you add to the Hidden role or Data Tip role is included in the query that is sent by the report object to SAS^® Cloud Analytic Services (CAS). Assigning a category that increases the number of rows in the result set could potentially alter the values displayed in the report object, often in unexpected ways. Consider the following display:

In both list controls, Quarter is assigned to the Category role. Quarter returns four rows (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4). In the second list control, Month is assigned to the Hidden role. There are 12 months, with multiple months in each quarter. This new query expands the result set for the second list control to 12 rows instead of four rows. Because Quarter is the only visible category, the control shows duplicate values with no context.

Other report objects might not display any data. Instead, you see a message similar to this one, which appeared in a bar chart:

The bar chart encountered duplicate bar classification data values and cannot be displayed

If you assign a category to the Hidden role or Data Tip role, ensure that the category does not increase the number of rows in the result set. As a rule, the data item in the Category role should have either a one-to-one relationship or a many-to-one relationship with the category in the Hidden role or Data Tip role. In the previous example, you could place Months in the Category role and Quarter in the Hidden role because each month is in only one quarter, a many-to-one relationship.