--- url: /set-instructions/element-instructions.md description: >- How elements actually get into a set - picked from the hierarchy explorer on the left of the Set Editor, one of three ways to populate a set alongside Insert Using Formula and Insert Element From Title. --- # Element Instructions An element gets into a set one of three ways: picked directly from the **hierarchy tree explorer**, the left panel of the [Set Instructions editor](/set-instructions/#the-set-instructions-editor) - an element instruction, and the focus of this page; via [Insert Using Formula](/set-instructions/insert-using-formula), where the element is computed by a formula; or via [Insert Element From Title](/set-instructions/insert-element-from-title), where it's read from whatever the current context is. Double-click an element in the hierarchy explorer (or drag-select several and click **Add**) and it's inserted into the Applied Instructions list as its own entry. ![The Set Instructions editor - the left panel's hierarchy tree is where element entries come from](/set-instructions-editor-annotated.png) ## Right-click quick-add options Right-clicking an element in the hierarchy explorer, instead of double-clicking it, opens a menu of shortcuts that combine adding the element with common follow-up instructions in a single click: ![Right-click menu on an element in the hierarchy explorer](/set-editor-dimension-right-click.png) * **Add Element** - adds just the element you right-clicked, nothing else. The same result as double-clicking it. * **Add & Expand** - adds the element, then expands it one level, showing its immediate children beneath it. * **Add & Expand-All** - adds the element, then expands it fully, showing every level of descendant beneath it. * **Add Children Only** - adds the element's immediate children as their own rows rather than the parent itself, with the parent re-added at the end as a total row, and drill-down enabled so a user can still expand further manually. * **Add Descendants Only** - adds every leaf-level descendant as a flat list with no parent or subtotal rows at all - equivalent to [Expand All](/set-instructions/expand-all) followed by [Remove Consolidations](/set-instructions/remove-consolidations) and [Reset Indents](/set-instructions/reset-indents). ::: danger Replaces the set, doesn't add to it Every option in this menu **replaces the set's entire existing instruction list** rather than adding to it. Right-clicking an element and choosing any of these discards whatever instructions were already there in that set, with no confirmation prompt. Use double-click, or drag-select and **Add**, instead when you want to add to a set that already has instructions rather than start over. ::: ## Elements vs. instructions The Applied Instructions list holds two different kinds of entry, and it matters which one you're looking at: * **Element entries** (from the hierarchy explorer) - a specific element, or a handful of elements picked from a single position in the tree. This is the raw material - what's actually in the working list before anything manipulates it. * **Instructions** (from the right-hand panel, or read about throughout the rest of this documentation - [Set Formatting](/set-instructions/set-formatting), [Set Manipulation](/set-instructions/set-manipulation), [Data Formatting](/set-instructions/data-formatting), [Advanced Functions](/set-instructions/advanced-functions)) - these act on whatever elements are already in the working list. `Expand`, `Sort By Name`, `Format 0,000` and the rest don't add elements themselves; they reshape what an element entry already put there. Throughout this documentation, an element pick is written as a plain step in an instruction sequence - `1. Element: All Products` - to keep it visually distinct from a `Set` itself. ## Element entries are qualified by hierarchy An element entry isn't just the element's name - it's recorded as ` - []`, visible in the Applied Instructions list as e.g. `Set - Default - [All Lines] (x1)`: ![Set Editor showing an element entry qualified by its hierarchy - "Default" is prefixed to "All Lines"](/set-editor-element-hierarchy.png) This matters because element names aren't required to be unique across a dimension's hierarchies - the same name can exist as a parent element in more than one hierarchy, grouping entirely different children in each. The hierarchy prefix is what tells MODLR which one a given element entry actually means. **Resolution order.** An element entry resolves against a hierarchy in a fixed order: 1. The parent-hierarchy pairing no longer holds (an entry recorded against a `Reporting View` hierarchy, say, where the parent it named has since been removed from `Reporting View`) - falls back to the `Default` hierarchy. 2. Still not found in `Default` - every other hierarchy on the dimension is checked in turn, in the order those hierarchies were added to the dimension. 3. Not found in any hierarchy - the entry fails to evaluate: the row or column it would have produced simply doesn't render, and any later instruction in the stack that depended on it doesn't act on it either. ::: tip Resolve it, don't rely on it If you notice an element entry with no hierarchy recorded, or with a hierarchy prefix the parent is no longer actually part of, treat it as something to fix rather than something to leave to this fallback order - re-pick the element from its current, correct hierarchy. Relying on the fallback risks silently resolving against a same-named parent in the wrong hierarchy instead of the one you intended. ::: **To confirm which hierarchy actually resolved for a given cell**, right-click it in a Workview or Card and choose **Explain Value**. The trace's title shows the cell's full address, with each dimension's contribution written as `»`: ![Explain Value trace showing the resolved hierarchy prefixed to the element, "Default»All Lines"](/explain-value-hierarchy-prefix.png) See [Understanding a Cell Address](/technical/understanding-a-cell-address) for how this addressing works more generally, including when the hierarchy segment can be omitted. ## A set can hold more than one element entry A set isn't limited to a single starting element. Add more than one, in any order, and instructions later in the stack apply to everything added so far - which is how multi-branch layouts get built within a single set: ``` 1. Element: Coolers Complete 2. Element: Stationmaster 3. Expand ``` Both brands are added as separate element entries, then `Expand` adds the immediate children of both - not just the one added most recently. ## Fixed vs. computed A manual element pick is fixed - it always refers to the same element until someone edits the set. `Insert Using Formula` and `Insert Element From Title` add an element to the working list the same way, but compute *which* element at runtime instead of reading it from a fixed pick in the tree. See the rest of the [Element Insertion](/set-instructions/advanced-functions#element-insertion) instructions for the full list.