If your graph object contains multiple graph elements,
you can specify that some data roles be shared across two or more
graph elements. You share data roles when you want the graph elements
to use the same data role for either of their axes. When report designers
who use the graph object in their reports assign roles, a single data
column is assigned to all roles that use the shared role.
Note: If the graph element types
are compatible, overlaid graph elements are automatically assigned
a shared role.
(See Compatible Graph Elements.) You can unshare a role if needed.
Shared roles are very
useful in user-defined lattices. They enable you to manage data roles
across columns and rows. For example, you might share data roles if
you want to analyze relationships in your data.
In this example, the
X axis of the scatter plot shares a role with the Measure axis of
the bar chart.
When the graph object
is used in the designer, the data might be applied as shown in the
following example.
The bar chart shows
engine sizes for different regions of the world. (The engine size
has been changed from a Sum to an Average measure.) The scatter plot
shows the miles-per-gallon trend for the different engine sizes.