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Tactician Techniques
Stacking Overlay Labels
How to Stack Labels
You can use an expression to stack labels one on top of another in your overlay. For example, at each store location you might want to display the store’s name and the manager’s name and have one label appear above the other. The expressions you use will differ depending upon whether the variable you are displaying is Character or Numeric.
To stack labels for character variables:
- In the overlay that you want to display labels, select the Labels tab.
- In the Label with text box, enter and expression that follows the format:
varname1+’|’+varname2
The “pipe” character which is in single quotes in the middle of the expression is on your keyboard above the \ symbol.
Example: “Store Name”+’|’+Manager.
This places the Store Name label above the Manager label. Double quotes surround the variable name that contains a space. Single quotes surround the Pipe character.
To stack labels when at least one variable is numeric:
If any of the variables that you want to stack are numeric, you can use the SQL_VARCHAR function in the expression to convert the numeric variable to a character.
- In the overlay that you want to display labels, select the Labels tab.
- In the Label with text box, enter and expression that follows the format:
Varname1+’|’+convert( NumericVarname, SQL_VARCHAR)
The “pipe” character which is in single quotes in the middle of the expression is on your keyboard above the \ symbol.
Example: “Store Name”+’|’+convert( “Sales Per Store”, SQL_VARCHAR)
This displays the store name label above the Sales Per Store label.
Note: The expression does not change the type from Numeric to Character in the datasheet, but converts it for display.
To add a $ before a numeric variable:
If you are displaying a dollar amount, you can add a $ character to the expression so that your label will display as currency.
- In the overlay that you want to display labels, select the Labels tab.
- In the Label with text box, enter and expression that follows the format:
Varname1+’|’+’$’+convert( NumericVarname, SQL_VARCHAR)
The “pipe” character which is in single quotes in the middle of the expression is on your keyboard above the \ symbol.
The expression adds the $ character in as text.
Example: “Store Name”+’|’+’$’+convert( “Sales Per Store”, SQL_VARCHAR)
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