Blend Data that You Added

You might have a project where you added multiple data sets. You can blend data from one data set with data from another data set.

For example, Data Set A might contain new dimensions that extend the attributes of Data Set B. Or Data Set B might contain new facts that you can use alongside the measures that already exist in Data Set A.

When you add more than one data set to a project, the system tries to find matches for the data that’s added. It automatically matches external dimensions where they share a common name and have a compatible data type with attributes in the existing data set.

Data sets that aren't joined are divided by a line in the Data Panel of the project. If the project includes multiple data sets and if any aren't joined, then you'll see restrictions between data elements and visualizations. For example, you can't use the data elements of a data set in the filters, visualizations, or calculations of another data set if they're not joined. If you try to do so, you see an error message. You can match data elements of data sets that aren't joined in the Data Diagram of a project, or you can create individual filters, visualizations, or calculations for each data set.

You can specify how you want the system to blend your data.

1. Add one or multiple data sets to your project. Confirm that you're working in the Prepare canvas.
2. Go to the tabs at the bottom of the Prepare canvas and click Data Diagram. Alternatively, in the Data Panel, right-click and select Data Diagram.
3. Click the number along the line that connects the external source to the newly loaded source to display the Connect Sources dialog.
4. In the Connect Sources dialog, make changes as necessary.
   1. To change the match for a column, click the name of each column to select a different column from the data sets.

      If columns have the same name and same data type, then they’re recognized as a possible match. You can customize this and specify that one column matches another by explicitly selecting it even if its name isn’t the same. You can select only those columns with a matching data type.

   2. Click Add Another Match, and then select a column from the data sets to match.
   3. For a measure that you’re uploading for the first time, specify the aggregation type such as Sum or Average.
   4. Click the X to delete a match.
5. Click OK to save the matches.