Version 2021

Merging attribute and metric qualifications

The advanced options for a metric qualification or a shortcut-to-a-filter qualification allow you to specify whether existing attribute qualifications are merged into the calculation of the metric qualification. The full name of this option is When resolving this qualification in a report, other qualifications will be taken into consideration and merged. By default, this property is selected, which combines the qualifications.

A metric qualification is contained in a separate pass of SQL, creating a temporary table or "mini-report." If the qualifications are merged, attribute qualifications are added to that pass of SQL. If they are not merged, the attribute qualifications are not included in the metric qualification. They instead appear in the main SQL pass.

For an in-depth explanation of how metric qualifications work, see the Reports chapter of the Advanced Reporting Help.

For example, a report shows revenue by region. The report filter contains the attribute qualification of Category equal to Electronics and the metric qualification of revenue over $2 million. If the default is kept, the qualifications are merged. Only revenue from Electronics is considered when the metric checks for revenue over $3 million. The report results include four regions, as shown below:

Report sample with merged qualifications

In contrast, if the qualifications are not merged, revenue is calculated for all categories before the metric qualification is evaluated. However, only revenue from Electronics is displayed on the report. As shown in the following sample, regions are included that do not have at least $3 million of revenue in the Electronics category, but do have $3 million of revenue across all categories. The report, as shown below, now includes the Southwest and Web regions.

Report sample with unmerged qualifications

Besides affecting the report results, merging the qualifications reduces the amount of data a calculation must process.

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