MicroStrategy ONE

Creating transformation shortcut metrics

Before you begin

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

Transformation shortcut metrics apply offset values, such as "four months ago," to the selected attribute. The offset value is called a transformation.

Transformations are schema objects and therefore only a project designer with schema object privileges can create them. For more information on transformations, see Creating a transformation.

Transformation shortcut metrics allow you to compare current values for a given metric against corresponding values for that metric across a time period. For example, if you add a Last Year transformation to a revenue metric, the new shortcut metric calculates last year's revenue. Shortcut metrics are a quick way to add metrics based on existing metrics to a report.

For each transformation metric, you can select what to calculate:

  • Normal shows unit figures for both the current values and the corresponding values for the interval selected.

  • Variance displays the difference between the current values and the corresponding values for the interval selected, for example, Revenue - (Last Year's (Revenue)).

  • Variancepercentage calculates the difference, expressed as a percentage, between the current values and the corresponding ones for the interval selected, for example, Revenue - (Last Year's (Revenue))/(Last Year's (Revenue)).

Transformation shortcut metrics must be calculated in SQL and are therefore only available to users that have the Modify the list of Report Objects (use Object Browser) privilege. Because they must be calculated, the report re-executes to display the new metric.

For an example of a transformation metric on a report, see Transformation Metrics: Time-Based and Other Comparisons in the Advanced Reporting Help.

Prerequisite

  • You need the Create Derived Metrics (MicroStrategy Developer) and/or the Web Create Derived Metrics and Derived Attributes (MicroStrategy Web) privileges. These privileges are part of OLAP Services.

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

To create a transformation shortcut metric

To create a transformation metric that can be reused in different reports, see Creating transformation metrics.

  1. Open a report in the Report Editor or the Report Viewer. How do I open a report in the Report Editor?

  2. Right-click the column(s) or

  3. Select one of the following formats for the transformation data:

    • Normal shows unit figures for both the current values and corresponding ones for the interval selected.

    • Variance shows the difference between current values and corresponding ones for the interval selected.

    • Variance Percentage shows the difference, expressed as a percentage, between current values and corresponding ones for the interval selected.

  4. If you added the metric in the Report Viewer, a message displays, reminding you that the report must be re-executed to calculate the transformation metric values. Click Yes.

The report is refreshed (in the Report Editor) or re-executed (in the Report Viewer) to show an additional column that contains the transformation for the components selected.

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