Introduction to advanced reporting. MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting
Below you will find brief information for Advanced Reporting. It will give you an idea of the features and possible use cases. It is designed to help you create and analyze reports and dashboards, providing insights and data-driven decisions. It is intended for those who are familiar with basic reporting concepts and want to learn how to create more complex reports. It includes topics like building metrics, filters, and interactive documents.
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Introduction to advanced reporting
In addition to the basic reporting concepts mentioned throughout this course, many additional features allow you to perform more complex data analysis. In this lesson we will explore the following features:
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Enable smart totals for compound metrics using smart metrics
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Modify the context of data with level metrics
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Compare values from different time periods with transformation metrics
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Create a collection of elements with custom groups
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Ask users questions about the report data they want to view with prompts
Add smart totals to compound metrics: Smart metrics
Compound metrics are metrics made up of other metrics. For example,
Sum(Cost) + Sum(Profit)is a compound metric.An advantage of compound metrics compared to simple metrics is that compound metrics can use smart totals.
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Smart totals define the evaluation order for the final calculation. Evaluation order is the order in which objects are calculated by MicroStrategy’s Analytical Engine.
The default order of calculations is as follows:
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Compound smart metrics
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Consolidations
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Report limits
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Subtotals
Compound metric calculations occur first, whereas standard report subtotals are the last to be calculated.
A smart total calculates subtotals on individual pieces of the compound metric, while a regular total calculates subtotals by adding all the values for each row of the report. For example, a smart metric uses the formula:
Sum (Metric1)/Sum
(Metric2) rather than Sum (Metric1/Metric2). A compound metric with smart totals enabled is often called a smart metric.
For example, say that you have created a compound metric named Profit Margin using the calculation below.
Smart totals are enabled by clicking Metric Options and selecting Allow Smart
Metric from the Advanced metric options window.
So how does a smart metric differ from a compound metric on a report?
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Assume that we have added the compound Profit Margin metric to a report. We also add the same compound metric with smart totals enabled onto the same report, and name the smart metric Profit Margin-Smart.
Notice how the values in the Total column are very different.
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The totals for the Profit Margin metric (the third metric displayed) are very high, at 501.13% and 4514.57%. It is displaying a sum of all the metric values.
In other words, the metric is calculated for each row of the report, and then rolled up to the correct level.
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The totals for the Profit Margin-Smart metric (the last metric displayed) are more reasonable, at 4.62% and 15.11%. This is because smart metrics calculate subtotals on individual elements of the compound metric. This means that the smart metric adds all the revenue values together, adds all the cost values together, subtracts the cost sum from the revenue sum, and divides that by the revenue sum.
Specify the attribute to use in the metric calculation:
Level metrics
By default, metrics are evaluated at the level of the attributes on the report; this is called the report level. For example, a Revenue metric is set to the report level.
When the metric is placed on a report containing Region, the metric calculates regional revenue. When it is placed on a report containing Customer, the revenue is calculated for each customer.
You can set the level within the metric, allowing you to specify the attribute(s) to use in the metric calculation, regardless of what is contained on any report the
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Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting metric is placed on. When creating a new metric, you can change the level at which the metric calculates.
In the example below, you can see two different metrics have been added to the report. The level of each metric is indicated in the metric name:
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Revenue: Report Level
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Revenue: Item
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The Revenue: Report Level and Revenue: Report & Item metrics calculate the same result, providing the revenue for each region. The Revenue: Item metric calculates the revenue for all items, for all regions. The number is therefore the same for each row, since the metric does note differentiate between regions (the report level attribute). The number is the same as the grand total for the report.
Example of level metrics in action
Level metrics allow you to determine the contribution of one object to the whole.
In the example below, the level metrics % of all Revenue (by product) and % of
all Profit (by product) allow you to view each product’s contribution to the total
Revenue and Profit.
Components of a level metric
Three elements are needed to specify the level of a metric:
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Target: The attribute level at which the metric calculation groups.
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Grouping: Determines how the metric aggregates.
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Filtering: How the report filter interacts with the metric calculation.
More information on creating and using level metrics can be found in the
MicroStrategy course: 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.
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Make time-based comparisons: Transformation metrics
Transformation metrics are used to compare two different values for two different times. For example, you may want to compare last month’s revenue to this month’s revenue. Transformations allow you to apply an attribute-based offset to compare metric data. You can create your own transformations, or choose from the numerous prebuilt transformations.
Time-based transformations
Although transformations can be applied to any attribute hierarchy, the Time hierarchy is used most often. For the Time hierarchy, the offset can be set as a fixed number of days, weeks, months, or years. Some examples of time transformations include:
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The Last Year transformation that maps each time period to its corresponding time period last year.
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The Month-to-Date transformation that maps each time period to a set of time periods that comprise the entire month to date.
In the image below, the Actual Amount metric displays revenue values from the current quarter. The Last Quarter transformation is applied to the Actual Amount metric to create the Actual Amount - Last Quarter metric, which displays last quarter's revenue numbers. The difference between the sets of numbers can then be calculated and displayed in the Actual Amount - Last Quarter Difference metric.
Transformations are useful for such time-series analyses, which are relevant to many industries, including retail, banking, and telecommunications.
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Non-time-based transformations
While transformations are most often used for discovering and analyzing time-based trends in your data, not all transformations have to be time-based. For example, a transformation can map defunct product codes to new ones. An example of a non-time-based transformation is This Catalog/Last Catalog, which might subtract a number from an old product code to convert it into a new one.
If you are familiar with MicroStrategy functions, transformation-style analysis can also be supported using the Lag and Lead functions. These functions can be used to define metrics that compare values from different time periods without the use of
transformation metrics.
Add a transformation to a metric
This step assumes that the transformation already exists. The majority of the time, you will use transformations already included with MicroStrategy. If you need to create a new transformation, this must be done by the project designer in
MicroStrategy Developer.
When creating a new metric, you can add a transformation from the Metric Editor-
New Metric function editor window.
Grouping attribute elements: Custom groups
A custom group collects attribute elements together in a way that is not defined in the data warehouse. A custom group is made up of an ordered collection of
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Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting components called custom group elements, each consisting of a header and one or more filter qualifications that must be met for data to be included in the custom group element. Using filters, custom groups create virtual attributes that are similar to a collection of smaller reports.
For example, you want to display data in a report for each season in a year, but you do not have a Season attribute. You can create a custom group with elements representing each season, such as Winter and Spring, then add a filter to each custom group element to display data only for months in a specific season. In the image below, the Winter custom group element displays data for the months of
December, January, and February; the Spring element displays data for March,
April, and May; and so on.
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You create a custom group using the Custom Group Editor. In the example below, elements of the Region attribute are being included in a custom group.
More information on custom groups, and how to add them to your report, can be found in the MicroStrategy course 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.
Dynamically modify the contents of a report: Prompts
A prompt is a question the system presents to a user when the report is executed.
How the user answers the question determines what data is displayed on the report. You can make different prompt selections each time you run the report.
A report designer can include one or more prompts in any report. Prompts are an effective tool to:
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Allow each user who executes the report to request individualized sets of data from your data source when he answers the prompts and runs the report.
Effectively, each user creates his own filter for the report.
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Allow the report designer to create a smaller number of reports overall, using more inclusive objects, rather than having to create numerous, more specific reports that are individualized to each analyst.
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Allow the report designer to ensure that the objects on a report are the latest available objects in the project. This is possible using a search object in a prompt. When a user launches a prompt by running a report, the search
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Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting object retrieves the latest objects that fit the search criteria the report designer defined. Thus, no matter when the prompt was created, each time a user executes the report, the user chooses prompt answers from a list of the most up-to-date objects available in the project, including objects that may not have existed when the prompt was created.
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Allow users to keep the objects on their saved reports up-to-date. Users can save a prompted report so that the objects within the prompt remain connected to the objects that they were originally based on when the prompt was created. If objects are modified or deleted, the report can reflect those changes the next time the prompted report is run.
When you open an prompted report, you see a page similar to the image below.
Once you make your selections and run the report, only data for the selected objects will be displayed.
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Types of prompts
The correct prompt type to create depends on what report objects you want users to be able to filter on:
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Attribute Element List prompts: Are based on attribute elements. Users select prompt answers from a limited list of specific attribute elements.
Attribute Element List Prompt
This prompt is the most restrictive of the attribute and hierarchy prompts because the user has the fewest number of attribute elements from a single attribute to select answers from.
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Attribute Qualification prompts: Are based on an attribute form. Depending on how you create the prompt, users either:
Select from a list of all the attribute elements from specific attributes.
Attribute Qualification Prompt (Selection)
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Are guided through creating a qualification to filter on an attribute form.
Attribute Qualification Prompt (Qualification)
This prompt is less restrictive than the attribute element list prompt, because the user can select from multiple attributes. It is more restrictive than the hierarchy prompt, because the user has fewer attributes to select answers from.
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Hierarchy Qualification prompts: Are based on attribute elements from one or more attributes in a hierarchy. Users select attribute elements from a list of attributes.
Hierarchy Qualification Prompt
This prompt lets you give users the largest number of attribute elements to choose from when they answer the prompt to define their filtering criteria.
Users can select multiple attributes from multiple hierarchies.
A hierarchy is a group of attributes that are conceptually related; for example, the
Time hierarchy might consist of a Year attribute, a Month attribute, and a Day attribute.
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Metric Qualification prompts: Are based on metrics. Users are guided through creating a metric qualification, which determines what data should be displayed for one or more specific metrics on the report.
Metric Qualification Prompt
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Value prompts: Are based on a value for any object. Users type a single value to filter the report data on. The value can be a date, text, or a number, including Big Decimal numbers.
Value Prompt (Numeric)
A value prompt is usually used in a filter, but a value prompt can also be used in a metric. The filter or metric is then placed on a report.
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Object prompts: Are based on any object. Users select objects to include in a report, such as attributes, metrics, or filters. Users can use this prompt to add
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Object Prompts
The correct prompt type to create also depends on where on and how you want to add the prompt:
To add a prompt to a report:
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On the report template, use:
Object prompt containing attributes or metrics
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On the report filter, use:
Attribute Element List prompt
Attribute Qualification prompt
Hierarchy Qualification prompt
Metric Qualification prompt
Object prompt containing filters or reports
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On the report’s page-by pane:
Object prompt containing attributes or metrics
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To add a prompt to a metric, use:
Object prompt containing attributes, filters, or metrics
Value prompt containing numbers
To add a prompt to a filter, use:
Attribute Element List prompt
Attribute Qualification prompt
Hierarchy Qualification prompt
Metric Qualification prompt
Object prompt containing attributes, filters, or reports
Value prompt containing dates, numbers, or text
Components of a prompt
The pieces that make up a prompt control how a prompt appears and how it functions. These components include the following:
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Answer requirement: Determines whether users are required to answer the prompt or an answer is optional. If an answer is required, a report cannot be executed until an answer is provided.
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Default prompt answers: Pre-selected answers for the prompt, which the user can then accept, replace with a different answer, or accept and add more answers.
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Title and description: Name and description for the prompt, which can significantly impact whether a user finds prompts to be simple or complex.
These should be useful and descriptive.
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Style: Determines the appearance of the prompt and the layout of how users select answers for the prompt.
Stand-alone prompt vs. prompt as part of a report or filter
A stand-alone prompt is a prompt that is created as an independent
MicroStrategy object. A stand-alone prompt can then be used on many different reports, as well as on filters, metrics, and other objects, and can be used by other report designers. A stand-alone prompt gives report designers flexibility.
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Prompts can also be created as an intrinsic part of a given report, filter, or custom group, at the same time the report, filter, or custom group itself is being created.
Prompts created as part of another object are saved with the definition of that object. Therefore, a prompt created as part of another object cannot be used on any other object.
More information on creating and adding prompts to reports, can be found in the
MicroStrategy course 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.
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Patent Information
This product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033,
6,567,796, 6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100,
6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768,
6,798,867, 6,801,910, 6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693,
6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518,
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7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165, 7,082,422, 7,113,474, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349,
7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639,
7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562,
7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811,
7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616, 7,945,584, 7,970,782,
8,005,870, 8,035,382, 8,051,168, 8,051,369, 8,094,788, 8,130,918, 8,296,287, 8,321,411,
8,452,755, 8,521,733, 8,522,192, 8,577,902, 8,606,813, 8,607,138, 8,645,313, 8,761,659,
8,775,807, 8,782,083, 8,812,490, 8,832,588, 8,943,044, 8,943,187. 8,958,537, 8,966,597,
8,983,440, 8,984,274, 8,984,288, 8,995,628, 9,027,099, 9,027,105, 9,037, 577, 9,038,152,
9,076,006, 9,086,837, 9,116,954, 9,124,630, 9,154,303, 9,154,486, 9,160,727, 9,166,986,
9,171,073, 9,172,699, 9,173,101, 9,183, 317, 9,195,814, 9,208,213, 9,208,444, 9,262,481,
9,264,415, 9,264,480, 9,269,358, 9,275,127, 9,292,571, 9,300,646, 9,311,683 9,313,206,
9,330,174, 9,338,157, 9,361,392, 9,378,386, 9,386,416, 9,391,782, 9,397,838, 9,397,980,
9,405,804, 9,413,710, 9,413,794, 9,430,629, 9,432,808, 9,438,597, 9,444,805, 9,450,942,
9,450,958, and 9,454,594. Other patent applications are pending.
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Key features
- Create and edit complex reports
- Build custom metrics and filters
- Design interactive dashboards and documents
- Utilize pre-designed report templates
- Drill down into data for detailed analysis