Filtering is a very useful operation aimed at reducing the amount of data to be included in an analysis. In the context of a List Report, this means filtering out all the elements from one or several columns that are not needed for a particular analytical task.

The type of filter supported by List Reports is the so called One-Click Filter. When a one-click filter is applied, all the elements in the involved column are filtered out except for the elements that are equal to the one in the selected cell. This filtering technique is very easy and quick to use, but it does not support filter conditions. However, filters can be applied to any number of columns at the same time.

In List Reports data sorting is directly performed on the data contained by the column(s) to be sorted and this data is sorted in either alphabetical or numerical order depending on the data type of each element in the involved column(s). For columns containing a mix of string (text) data and numerical data, numerical values are considered lower than string values.

If more than one column is selected, data is sorted column-wise from left to right. This means that the left-most of the selected columns is sorted first, then the second left-most and so on.

List Reports can be searched for any given element in all directions, i.e. along the rows and along the columns of the report. The searched element can be a string (text) or numeric value. In addition, a search can be limited to a given row or column and by certain search criteria. However, search conditions as for instance "larger than", "less than", "between" and the like are not supported.

List Reports can be extended with a check-list column. A check-list column is an extra column that consists only of tick-off cells. Check lists are very useful when users need to mark rows using binary values as True/False, On/Off, Yes/No or similar.

Ad-hoc calculations are meant to complement existing reports and to give users the flexibility to generate new information by adding calculations not included into the original report at cell, column or row level. For this purpose, Quella Cognitus includes more than 100 different build-in functions covering mathematical, financial and logical operations.

An important aspect of List Reports is the way they are presented and the extent to which this presentation can be customised or formatted.

Formatting refers to the colours and fonts utilised to display data in a report. Therefore, it is an important factor in improving the readability and attractiveness of list reports.

Quella Cognitus supports a rich formatting functionality to enhance list reports.

The data displayed by a cell can easily be made more understandable to its reader by using Cell Notes. The active use of cell notes is therefore known to significantly enhance data readability by improving the communication between the author and the reader of a report.

List Reports can easily be exported to external file formats as for instance XML, HTML, Excel and Text Files. In this way, information can be shared with other users either inside or outside the organisation.