IBM COGNOS Report Studio query based report with optional prompt syntax

Many a times, we can’t wait till the metadata is created for every element that is there on the application, especially if your company is an extreme programming one. (Like the one I am working with.) So we end up writing query based reports in the COGNOS report studio.

The most common format that we find on the internet is:

               SALES_REP  in (#promptmany ('Rep_Prompt')#)

Where,

SALES_REP ----- Metadata element

Rep_Prompt   ------ name of the filter

As you know, using this kind of prompt results in a required prompt on the prompt page; but it is not always that we want the end-user to use these filters. What if we need to build a query based report in the report studio with an optional prompt from the query ……… :)

 Here is the format;

                SALES_REP in (#promptmany ('Rep_Prompt',' ','SALES_REP')#) 

I have built reports on COGNOS report studio based on this syntax and they works fantastically.

Where did I find this syntax ------ IBM COGNOS website.