5.1 Constructing a Data Block
There are many different ways to construct data blocks. In this example, you will build a data block by assembling several attributes from a single data model.

1. Press the 'New' button in the toolbar. This opens the 'New Asset' dialog box.
2. In the left panel, select 'Worksheet' and press 'OK'.

This creates a blank Data Worksheet.
3. In the Data Source panel, expand the following tree nodes: 'Data Source' > 'Orders' > 'Order Model' > 'Order'. This displays the attributes within the 'Order' entity of the data model.
You can think of a data block as a table.
4. Drag the 'Date' field from the tree to an empty cell on the Data Worksheet grid. This creates a new data block with the title “Order1”.

5. Next, expand the 'Product' entity, and drag the 'Category' attribute over the 'Date' column header.

When you see the green line on the right side of the header, drop the entity into the data block (table). The data block now includes both fields.

6. Using the same procedure, add the 'Product' > 'Total' field to the data block.

7. Now, right-click the data block title, and select 'Properties' from the context menu. This opens the 'Table Properties' dialog box.
8. In the 'Table Properties' dialog box, rename the data block by typing “MonthlySales” into 'Name' field.

9. Press 'OK' to close the dialog box.
10. In the title bar of the “MonthlySales” data block, press the 'Change View' button and select 'Live Preview'. Drag the bottom border of the data block down to see the actual data.

You can use this new data block in further data manipulations (e.g., joins, concatenations), or as a data source to reports and Viewsheets. For more information on creating data blocks, see Creating a Data Table in Data Mashup.
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