Filtering data
If an information object returns more data rows than you need, you can restrict the number of data rows by using a filter. For example, rather than list all customer sales, you can create a filter to select only the sales data for a particular week or only the sales data for a particular region.
Filtering data helps you work effectively with large amounts of data. It enables you to find the necessary pieces of information to answer specific business questions, such as which sales representatives generated the top ten sales accounts, which products generated the highest profit in the last quarter, which customers have not made a purchase in the past 90 days, and so on.
Filtering data can also have a positive effect on processing speed. Limiting the number of data rows can reduce the load on the databases because the information object does not need to return all the rows every time it is run.

Additional Links:

Copyright Actuate Corporation 2012