Growth

The Growth function uses data recorded for certain time intervals to calculate and display the expected value of data for an unknown time period. This is most commonly used to predict future metric values based on historical data. For example, based on revenue data for three years, you can predict what your Revenue will be for the coming year.

This function uses an exponential equation to predict future values. Therefore, it is best suited to predict values that increase or decrease in an exponential trend. For example, if your profits are increasing by 4 percent each year, this is a scenario that is well suited for a prediction based on an exponential equation.

For a function that predicts values in a similar way for data that is increasing or decreasing with a linear trend, see Forecast or Trend.

Syntax

Growth <FactID>
(KnownData1,...,KnownDataN, FutureTimeOffset)

Where:

KnownData1,...,KnownDataN are separate scalar values that provide the data to use to predict a future value for. While you can use Growth to enter these values manually, it is more common to use GrowthV which can use a metric to enter a list of values, as described in GrowthV (growth, vector input).

FutureTimeOffset is the point in time after the final time interval available for which to predict the data. This is commonly defined as an integer. For example, to predict values for the year 2009 when the last available data you have is for 2007, you would enter the value of 2 for FutureTimeOffset.

FactID is a parameter that forces a calculation to take place on a fact table that contains the selected fact.

Example

As described in the syntax requirements, you can use Growth to enter values manually. However, it is more common to use GrowthV to use metrics and attributes to enter this information, as described in GrowthV (Growth, Vector Input).