Level

Level is a shortcut function, available for various features in MicroStrategy Web, that allows you to easily define the level (dimensionality) of the final metric expression. The level of a metric determines the conceptual level at which a calculation is performed. For example, rather than just calculating your revenue, you want to specify that a metric always calculates yearly revenue. For additional information on when to create level metrics, see the Advanced Reporting Guide.

Once you select the Level shortcut function, you can then select the group function for the calculation, such as Sum or Max. Additionally, the options to add and remove levels are displayed:

• Report Level is the default level. If you remove Report Level as a level of the metric, you can add it back by typing Report Level in the level text field.
• To add a level to the metric, click the Browse icon () to select an attribute.
• To remove a level from a metric, click the Delete icon ().

You can also define how levels are evaluated:

• To define the level options, for each level, click the Level options icon ().

Drop-down List	Level Options
From the Relationship with Report Filter drop-down list, you can define how the report filter affects the metric calculation.	To include only data that meets the conditions in the report filter in the metric calculation, select Standard filtering.
	To raise the level of the report filter to the level of the target, if possible, then apply the report filter to the metric calculation, select Absolute filtering. For example, the report filter contains the Washington, DC, Boston, and New York call centers, but the Revenue metric is calculated at the Region level. Because Call Center is a child attribute of Region, the report filter's level is raised to the Region level, and the report filter is treated as if it includes the regions that contain Washington, DC, Boston, and New York (in this case, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast). Data from all call centers in the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast regions are included in the metric calculation, including call centers that are not Washington, DC, Boston, or New York.
	To ignore any conditions in the report filter that are based on the target attribute, as well as any parent or child attributes of the target, select Ignore filtering. For example, if you have a regional revenue metric on a report, any conditions based on Country, Region, or Call Center in the report filter are ignored when calculating the metric. However, a condition based on Year would not be ignored, since Year is not directly related to Region.
	To allow the target and group components of the level to define the filter, select None.
From the Metric Aggregations drop-down list, you can determine how the metric is grouped, or aggregated, when displayed on a report.	To group data in the metric by the attribute level of the target, select Standard.
	To exclude the target attribute from being used to group data in the metric, select None. Any children of the target attribute are also excluded. This option is available for metrics calculated at a set level, as opposed to the report level.
	The following options are only used for nonaggregatable metrics. A nonaggregatable metric, such as an inventory metric, is one that should not be aggregated across an attribute. For example, if you have monthly inventory numbers in your data warehouse and want to calculate the yearly inventory, adding the monthly numbers together does not provide a useful business measure. Instead, you may want to use the end-on-hand and beginning-on-hand inventory numbers to see how the total inventory changed during the year. The following options are available: To use the first value in the lookup table, select Beginning lookup. To use the last value in the lookup table, select Ending lookup. To use the first value in the fact table, select Beginning fact. To use the last value in the fact table, select Ending fact.

• To define the advanced level options, such as whether to apply the metric filter to the metric calculation, click Level advanced options:
  • Allow other users to add extra units to this definition: This option is used to emulate MicroStrategy 6.x behavior and affects only those projects that have been upgraded from 6.x. Clear the check box only if your project was upgraded from MicroStrategy 6.x. This option is selected by default.
  • Include filter attributes which are not in report or level in metric calculation: Determine whether to apply the metric filter when the metric is calculated. If this option is cleared, filter attributes that are not on the report or in the level of the metric are not included in the metric calculation. This options lets you determine which parts of the metric filter are applied based on the data that has been included on the report. This option can help you re-use the same metric in multiple reports, eliminating the need to create and maintain multiple metrics, particularly if the metric and filter qualifications are complex. For an example, including an explanation of how the report SQL is affected by this option, see the Advanced Reporting Guide. This option is selected by default.