Date comparison

Date Comparison in Analysis Workspace lets you take any column containing a date range and create a common date comparison, such as: year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, month-over-month, etc.

Compare time periods

Analysis requires context, and often that context is provided by a previous time period. For example, the question “How much better/worse are we doing than at this time last year?” is fundamental to understanding your business. Date Comparison automatically include a “difference” column, which shows the percentage change compared to a specified time period.

  1. Create a Freeform table, with any dimensions and metrics you want to compare over a time period.

  2. Right-click a table row and select Compare Time Periods.

    Table row with Compare Time Periods selected

    note important
    IMPORTANT
    This right-click option is disabled for metric rows, date range rows, and time dimension rows.
  3. Depending on how you have set the table’s date range, you have these options for comparison:

    table 0-row-2 1-row-2 2-row-2 3-row-2
    Option Description
    Prior week/month/quarter/year to this date range Compares to the week/month/etc. immediately before this date range.
    This week/month/quarter/year last year Compares to the same date range a year ago.
    Select range Lets you select a custom date range.
    note note
    NOTE
    When you select a custom number of days, for example October 7 - October 20 (a 14-day range), you will get only 2 options: Prior 14 days before this date range, and Select range.
  4. The resulting comparison looks like this:

    Freeform Table showing a comparison of date ranges and percent change.

    Rows in the Percent Change column appear red for negative values and green for positive values.

  5. (Optional) As in any other Workspace projects, you can create visualizations based on these time comparisons. For example, here is a Bar graph:

    Workspace project bar graph.

    Note that in order to show the percentage change in the bar chart, you have to have the Percentages setting checked in the Visualization Settings.

Add a time period column for comparison

You can now add a time period to each column in a table, enabling you to add a time period that is different from the one your calendar is set to. This is another way you can compare dates.

  1. Right-click a column in the table and select Add Time Period Column Table column list with Add Time Period Column highlighted

  2. Depending on how you have set the table’s date range, you have these options for comparison:

    table 0-row-2 1-row-2 2-row-2 3-row-2
    Option Description
    Prior week/month/quarter/year to this date range Adds a column with the week/month/etc. immediately before this date range.
    This week/month/quarter/year last year Adds the same date range a year ago.
    Select range Lets you select a custom date range.
    note note
    NOTE
    When you select a custom number of days, for example October 7 - October 20 (a 14-day range), you will get only 2 options: Prior 14 days before this date range, and Select range.
  3. The time period will be inserted on top of the column you selected:

    Freeform Table showing Occurances for current calendar period and the previous calendar month.

  4. You can add as many time columns as you want, as well as mix and match different date ranges:

    Freeform table showing occurences for this month, previous month, previous month a year ago, and one week of previous month a year ago.

  5. In addition, you can sort on each column, which will change the order of days depending on the column you are sorting on.

Align column dates to start on same row section_5085E200082048CB899C3F355062A733

A new setting for all tables lets you Align Dates from each column to all start on the same row (applies to entire table). “Applies to entire table” means that if you do, for example, a breakdown in the table, and if you change this setting for the breakdown, it will change the setting for the entire table.

Freeform Table with Table Settings popup showing Align dates from each column to all start on the same row selected.

IMPORTANT
This setting is disabled (unchecked) for all existing projects and enabled (checked) for all new projects.

Example: When you choose to align the dates, if you do a month-over-month comparison between October and September 2016, the left column will start with October 1 and the right column will start with September 1:

Comparison showing month-over-month percentages.

recommendation-more-help
080e5213-7aa2-40d6-9dba-18945e892f79