Creating metrics in reports

Before you begin

You must have MicroStrategy OLAP Services to create derived and shortcut metrics. If you would like to evaluate OLAP Services, contact your MicroStrategy Account Executive or e-mail MicroStrategy directly at info@microstrategy.com.

About derived metrics and shortcut metrics

A derived metric is a calculation based on metric data included in the report definition. You can use derived metrics to perform column math, that is, calculations on metrics included in the report definition, without regenerating or re-executing SQL against the data warehouse.

Derived metrics are easy to create and can be made on-the-fly when you are viewing a report. A typical case is to create a derived metric to perform calculations between columns of metric data. For example, derived metrics can be used to subtract the data of one metric by the data of another metric (Metric1 - Metric2) to obtain a new metric calculation.

Since derived metrics are created within a report, they can only be used for the report in which they are created. Derived metrics cannot be saved as individual objects in the project, and therefore cannot be applied to other reports in the project.

Information on derived metrics is provided in the topics listed below:

• Creating derived metrics

• Editing derived metrics

• Formatting derived metrics

• Deleting derived metrics

• View filter effects on derived metrics

Shortcut metrics are a special subset of derived metrics. Shortcut metrics are limited to percent-to-total, rank, and transformation metrics. Shortcut metrics are available when you right-click on a metric column or metric header and are based on the selected metric. Derived metrics provide more flexibility, allowing you to use a range of functions and operators.

For more details on shortcut metrics, including examples, see Using rank and percent-to-total metric analysis.

You can also use derived metrics as part of Data Mining Services to create training metrics. For information on training metrics and creating predictive analysis, see Using Data Mining Services. For information on creating training metrics using the derived metrics feature, see Training Metric Wizard.