Creating Insights to Visualize Your Data
This section describes how to create and use Data Explorer insights to visualize your data. For additional information see the following subsections also on this page:
| • | Refining the Data Using Individual Measures and Attributes |
| • | Adding Granularity |
| • | Attributes |
| • | Adding Dates |
| • | Adding Filters to the Entire Insight |
| • | Adding Filters to Measures and Attributes |
| • | Splitting the Display Into a Stacked Chart |
| • | Recommendations When Creating Insights |
| • | Editing Insights |
| • | Deleting Insights |
To create Insights:
| 1. | On the workspace toolbar, click Analyze to open Data Explorer. |
| 2. | Select the insight type by clicking the appropriate icon. |
| 3. | Drag a measure ( ) or an attribute ( ) from Data Catalog onto any drop zone to visualize it. |
If you add at least two measures or attributes, you can create a calculated measure.
| 4. | Save the insight by clicking the Save button. |
| 5. | Use the Undo and Redo buttons in the top bar to browse through your edits, and to remove all data from the insight, click Clear (located to the right of the Redo button). |
| 6. | Optionally, adjust the properties of the insights, such as colors, axes, and legends. For details see Configuring Insight Properties. |
Different charts require different types of data. If you change the chart type, the insight may change the displayed data as well. For example, you can set a Stack by for a column chart, but not for a pie chart. For details about different types of insights, see Insight Types.
Refining the Data Using Individual Measures and Attributes
To refine the data from individual measures and attributes, update them in the Measures section. You can:
| • | Show values in a percentage |
| • | Select which calculation to use to display the measure data |
Note:This applies to measures only.
| • | Customize the format of individual measures in your insight. For details, see Formatting Numbers. |
To add granularity to the displayed data, drag the Date (
) or Attribute (
) to the Rows/Columns section for tables or the View by/Trend by/Attribute section for other insights.
If you add Attributes, you can select which attribute label should be used to display the attribute values (the Display as option).
You can use text labels, hyperlink labels, and geo labels.
If you add Dates, you can display the data:
| • | In various date dimensions as defined by your logical data model (using the Date as option) |
| • | Group them by day, week, month, quarter, year, or additional date attributes, such as day of week or month of year (using the Group by option) |
| • | Select which attribute label should be used to display the values (using the Display as option). |
When you group the data by Day, the Display as option is not available.
All insights display date in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY. You can change the format in your account settings.
Adding Filters to the Entire Insight
To filter the entire insight, you can:
| • | Drag the date and other attributes to the top bar and drop it there. |
| • | Click the filter icon on the filter bar and enable filters in the drop-down menu. |
If you also add one date attribute to the insight (in the View by/Trend by/Attribute/Rows/Columns sections), the following applies:
| • | If you change the date dimension in the insight, the dimension also changes in the date filter. |
| • | If you change the date dimension in the date filter, the dimension in the insight stays unchanged. |
Adding Filters to Measures and Attributes
For details about filters, see Using Filters in Data Explorer.
You can filter each measure and attribute by up to 20 attributes, and 1-date filter. All filters are applied at the same time (the AND operator).
The resulting insight matches all the applied measure level filters—both measure AND attribute filters. For information about date filter interactions, see Filtering Measures by Date.
Splitting the Display Into a Stacked Chart
To split the display into a stacked chart, drag an Attribute (
) to the Stack by/Segment by section.
You can select which attribute label should be used to display the values (the Display as option).
To use Stack by (or Segment by for Line charts), the insight must have only one item in the Measures section.
Recommendations When Creating Insights
As you create insights, Data Explorer offers you recommendations for next steps.
The recommendations that appear when you add measures and attributes are based on actions users typically perform in similar analytical scenarios:
To edit a saved insight, click Open in the top bar of Data Explorer and select the insight to edit.
To delete a saved insight, go the Open drop-down menu, and click the delete icon that appears to that right of that insight when you hover over the insight.
If the insight is placed on a KPI dashboard or used in drilling from KPI dashboards, Data Explorer warns you and displays a clickable list of the KPI dashboards with this insight. When you delete the insight, it is removed from the KPI dashboard and drilling.