The Drill to data source functionality is used to identify the original source data driving a calculated cell. This feature shows where the source data is located in either Metrics, Transactions, or Dimension lists, whether in the same Application or in another Application.
Using Drill to data source
To use Drill to data source, right-click on the cell for which you want to see the source data. Select the Drill to data source option from the menu.
The Block types available depend on where the source data is located. For example, if a calculated cell’s data is only from a Transactions list, then Dimensions and Metrics do not open. The feature analyzes the Metric Dependency Diagram and lists the different Transaction lists, Metrics, or Dimension lists which might contribute to the cell you selected.
Transaction lists and Dimensions lists
When selecting Drill to data source on a cell that contains source data from a Transaction list or Dimension list, Page selectors are used to showcase which data contributed to the result.
For example, let's say you have a cell from a Metric that used the BY modifier to calculate totals for units sold by Country. If you used Drill to data source on the cell for US units sold and chose the Transaction list option, your result would should you all the items in that Transaction list that were used to calculate the US total sold. If you looked at the Page selector in the resulting Transaction list, it would be the US Page selector. If the formula used other arguments in the BY modifier, such as Month or Product, those Dimensions would also be listed as Page selectors and aligned to the cell that was selected. So if the cell selected was in December, the Page selector would also say December to show transactions from that month.
Metrics
When selecting a Metric as the Block type to drill to, you are given a similar experience as with Lists. The Metric will be shown with Page selectors narrowing down the data to the cells that directly contributed to the calculated cells.
When selecting a Metric, the Metrics shown are always the original source of data. It does not show any Metrics that reference the original source.
Limitations
Inaccurate Drill to data source:
Drill to data source was initially designed for use cases where your Metric data is an aggregation (sum) of a single Property of a Transaction List. Some complex formulas are not supported correctly by this feature.
In such cases, the Block selection modal will alert you that the filtering might not be accurate.
This alert might be either because an unsupported function is used or because you are using filters/Dimensions modifiers which cannot be expressed as Page selector in the Block view.
Currently unsupported functions :
- previous
- networkdays
- prorata
- cumulate
- decumulate
- rank
- spread
- daysinperiod
Unsupported filter/Dimension modifiers:
- Filters on Metric values
- Select which does Offset
Incomplete List of Dependencies:
You might see this error message if you are using the Drill to data source feature on a large model. “List of data sources might be incomplete because the current Metric has too many dependencies.”
For technical reasons, Drill to data source will only go to a certain depth in the model and stops after browsing too many blocks. Current limits are set to a depth of 10 Blocks, and 256 Blocks in total.