Metric Function Editor

The Metric Function Editor allows you to quickly and easily create a metric, which is a calculation performed against the data in the data warehouse. Metrics represent business measures and key performance indicators. For a brief overview of metrics, see About metrics.

The fields available on the Function Editor vary depending on the type of function that you selected in the Select a Function or Template dialog box:

If the selected function is a simple grouping function (such as Sum, Average, First, and Maximum), the following fields are available:
1. Expression: The data that the function works on. Examples of simple grouping functions are Sum, Average, First, and Maximum.
  
  Level: By default, metrics are evaluated at the level of the attributes on the report; this is called the report level. For example, a net sales metric is set to the report level. When the metric is placed on a report containing Region, the metric calculates regional net sales. When it is placed on a report containing Customer, the net sales is calculated for each customer. You can set the level within the metric, allowing you to specify the attribute to use in the metric calculation, regardless of what is contained on any report the metric is placed upon. For a more detailed description, including examples and the elements of a metric level, see Level metrics: Modifying the context of data calculations.
  
  Condition: A condition is a metric filter that is independent of the filters on any reports the metric is used in. A conditional metric allows you to apply a filter to only one metric on a report while not affecting the other metrics. The metric condition can be either a filter or a prompt that returns a list of filters. Only one filter or prompt can be associated with each metric, but that filter can contain multiple qualifications. For example, a conditional metric can calculate net sales for only the Northeast region. When placed on a report with item, the net sales amount is displayed for only Northeast for each of the items. For a more detailed description, including examples, see Conditional metrics: Filtering data calculations.
  
  Transformation: Transformations allow you to apply an attribute-element offset for fact-comparison purposes. Although transformations can be applied to any attribute hierarchy, the one on which offsets are used most often is Calendar, in which case the difference can be set as a fixed number of days, weeks, months or years. For example, a transformation metric can calculate last year's net sales. In 2012, that is 2011 net sales, but in 2011 that is 2010 net sales. For a more detailed description, including an example, see Conditional metrics: Filtering data calculations.
If the selected function is not a grouping function, you define the arguments or parameters. Non-grouping functions include data mining, date, and rank functions, such as Rank, NTile, Moving Average, and AddDays.
1. Arguments are the input values of a function. For example, the arguments of the Average function can be the metric to be averaged.
  
  Parameters allow you to determine the behavior of the function. For example, the NTile function has two parameters, Ascending and Tiles. Ascending controls whether the NTiles are ordered in ascending or descending order, while Tiles sets the number of splits.

For steps to create a metric that uses a grouping function, see Creating a metric that uses a grouping function. For steps to create a metric that uses a non-grouping function, see Creating a metric that uses a non-grouping function.

Note: You can switch to the Formula Editor, by clicking Switch to Formula Editor. The Formula Editor allows you to create a compound metric (which combines multiple metrics, such as Net Sales - Refund Amount), build custom expressions such as percent-to-total, or type the metric formula (recommended only if you are experienced with metrics). For steps to use the Formula Editor, see Metric Formula Editor.

To access the Function Editor:

Navigate to the Shared Reports or My Reports folder or to the Search page.
From the icon bar, click the Create Metric icon. This displays the Select a Function or Template dialog box.
Select a function by doing one of the following:
- Begin typing a function in the field. As you type, matching objects are displayed in the bottom list. You can click an object or continue to type.
- Choose a category from the drop-down list, and select a function from the list below.
When you select a function, a description of the function is displayed at the bottom of the dialog.
Click OK to add the function to the metric. This displays the Function Editor.