Specifying metric levels

Level metrics are useful for determining the contribution of one object (or a subset of objects) to the whole. By default, a metric is calculated at the level of the attributes on the report; this is referred to as the report level. However, you can specify any set of attributes as the calculation level of a metric, as described in the following procedure.

Prerequisites

This procedure assumes that you:

• Have a basic understanding of level metrics. See the Advanced Metrics chapter of the Advanced Reporting Help.

• Are already working with a simple metric in the Metric Editor, because you can set levels for simple metrics but not for compound metrics. The formula of a simple metric is based on group functions (such as sum or average). For more information, see Simple vs. compound metrics.

  • If you are not working with a simple metric, do one of the following:

  • Edit an existing metric

  • Create a simple metric

To specify a metric level

1. In the Metric Editor, click Level (Dimensionality) on the Metric component pane (located under the heading "Metric (metric name) is defined as"). The Level (Dimensionality) definition window displays below the Metric component pane.

2. To create a new level:

   • Double-click an attribute in the Object Browser. The attribute is added in the Target column. For information about the target, see About level metrics.

     You can use a hierarchy instead of an attribute. Using a hierarchy allows the level metric to dynamically adapt to the report. When placed on a report with attributes from that hierarchy, the metric calculates at the level of the lowest attribute of that hierarchy. For a more detailed explanation of hierarchies in level metrics, see Using a hierarchy as the target of a metric level.

   • Click in the Filtering column and select a filtering option. Your choices are:

     • Standard filtering allows the report filter to interact as usual in the metric calculation. The metric calculates only for the elements found in the filter definition. This is the default.

     • Absolute filtering changes the filter on descendents of the target. It raises it to the level of the target, if possible. Absolute filtering influences what is displayed on the report, not its calculations.

     • Ignore filtering omits filtering criteria based on the attribute in the target and its related attributes (parents and children).

     • None can be summarized as unspecified, the filtering behavior for the target is not determined by this component. Instead, the target and group components of this level unit define the filter.

     For more information on filtering, see Level metrics: Filtering.

   • Click in the Grouping column and select a grouping option. Your choices are:

     • Standard groups by the attribute level of the target. That is, the metric calculates at the level of the target, if possible.

     • None excludes the attribute in the target from the GROUP BY clause. It also excludes any of the target attribute's children. This option does not appear if the target is set to the report level.

     The remaining options are used for non-aggregatable metrics only. A non-aggregatable metric, such as an inventory metric, is one that should not be aggregated across an attribute.

     • Beginning lookup uses the first value of the lookup table.

     • Ending lookup uses the last value of the lookup table.

     • Beginning fact accesses the first value of the fact table.

     • Ending fact accesses the last value of the fact table.

     For more information on grouping, see Level metrics: Grouping.

3. By default, the report level remains when you add a level to a metric. You can choose to delete the report level or modify it:

   • Keeping the report level allows the metric calculation to adapt to different reports.

   • If you remove the report level, only the level explicitly set on the metric affects the metric calculation, regardless of what the report contains. To remove the report level, select it, then click Remove. See About the report level of a metric for the consequences of removing the report level.

   • To modify the report level, select it and change the Filtering and Grouping as discussed in the steps above. You cannot change the Target.

   For more information, see About the report level of a metric.

4. To remove a level, select it and then click Remove.

5. To return to the default report level and delete any additional levels, click Reset.

6. The default advanced options are described below:

   • The Allow other users to add extra units to this definition check box should be cleared only if your project was upgraded from MicroStrategy 6.x. This setting, which is selected by default, emulates MicroStrategy 6.x behavior. It indicates whether the metric accepts dimensionality units, for metrics used at the template level and metrics used in the filter for a metric qualification. This continuation dimensionality is merged with the original units to complete the metric level.

   • The Filter setting: uncheck to exclude attributes absent in report or level (dimensionality) check box is selected by default. Clear it to remove these filter attributes from the metric calculation. This can help you reuse the same metric in multiple reports.

7. Choose one of the following:

   • Save the metric

   • Continue creating the metric (for example, adding conditionality or transformations)