KB9141: How to specify the top number of rows to be retrieved in a MicroStrategy Developer report

A user wants a Strategy Developer report to only retrieve a specified number of rows. In this example, the report will be modified to only return the top five rows.
 
To achieve this, perform the following steps:
 

• Create a running sum metric which will return the row number for each record.
   
  For example, the value of this metric will be one for the first record and two for the second record, etc. Any metric can be used to define this Running Sum metric. This example uses a metric named 'Max1':
  

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  Defining a metric this way can save unnecessary Structured Query Language (SQL) processing.
   
  The screen shot below shows the Running Sum metric definition:
   
  

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  RunningSum(Max(1){~})
  
• Place the Running Sum metric in a report object window so that it won't display in the report template, as shown below:
  

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  Note: If a user doesn't have Strategy OLAP Services privileges, the Report Object window will not be available.
   
  
• With the report open, add a report limit against the Running Sum metric so it only returns top five row's records.
  To achieve this, go to Data > Report Data Options > Report Limit> Modify to specify the report limit definition, as shown below:
   
  

• Re-execute the report.

Now, the report will retrieve only the top five rows of data.