Metrics are a critical Block used in Pigment for inputs, calculations, and outputs or reporting.  Metrics are made of Dimension lists that define their structure and can be set to different data types to handle multiple different uses.  This article will give an introduction to Metrics.

 Table of Contents

What is a Metric?

Metrics are a type of Block that you create to perform three different tasks:

• inputting data
• performing calculations
• reporting

Some examples of data inputs are growth percentages or other assumptions. Metrics are used for Reporting outputs such as reporting in a P&L statement.  You also have other Metrics that are used to perform calculations, such as seasonality, which will be referenced by other Metrics.  

What are Metrics made of?

Metrics are defined by their structure, data type, formulas, and a few other settings. 

• Structure. A Metric’s structure is made up of Dimension lists to create a grid.  For example, if you wanted to see monthly revenue for each country and product in your company.  You would create a Metric with your Country, Product, and Month dimension lists.
• Data type. The Data type of a Metric controls what type of data can populate that Metric.  For example, if you set the data type to Date, you will only be able to put dates into that Metric.
• Formulas. This is another critical element in Metrics. Input Metrics don’t have a formula, whereas calculation or reporting Metrics have formulas to analyze data.  There are different type of Functions and Modifiers that are used in Metrics.

Creating, Editing and Deleting a Metric

Create

To create a Metric:

1. Go to the Block section in the sidebar.
2. Hover over the Block section and click the plus sign (+).
3. Select New Metric.
4. Complete the required fields to name your new Metric, to choose a data type, and to decide which Dimensions this Metric will be based on.
   For more information on data types for Metrics, see Data types in Pigment. 
5. From the menus, define a default aggregator for the time or non-time Dimensions in your Metric.
   - Default time aggregator
   - Default non-time aggregator

Default aggregators are applied in new Views whether the Dimensions are displayed as Pages, or if they’re hidden. Any default aggregators already applied to existing Views remain unchanged when you duplicate or draft those Views. You can change the default Metric aggregators at any time from the Block Settings, but the new aggregator only affects Views created from that point onward.

Below you can see an example of a Metric named FTE (Full time employee) with two Dimensions, Country and Month. The default aggregator for the time Dimension, Month, is set to Last Non-blank, and the default aggregator the non-time Dimension, Country, is Avg.

Each time a new View is created and the Dimension is added in Pages or is hidden, the custom aggregator will be set to Last Non-blank for the Time Dimension and to Avg for non-time Dimensions.

Edit or Delete

To edit your Metric:

1. Go to the required Metric in the Block section in the sidebar.
2. Hover over the Metric section and click the menu (...).
3. Select Settings.
   This opens the settings panel where you can view several categories of Metric information, including its name, folder location, and where it’s used. 
4. (Optional) Click on any of the settings categories and update the required fields to edit your Metric.
    

   If you change a Metric data type, all data in the Metric will be erased

5.  (Optional) Click Delete to delete your Metric.

Duplicate 

To duplicate a Metric:

1. Go to the required Metric in the Block section in the sidebar.
2. Hover over the Metric section and click the menu (...).
3. Select Duplicate.
4. Enter a new name for the duplicated Metric, and select which options you require. 
5. Click Duplicate. 

Batch Duplicate 

To duplicate several Metrics at once:

1. Click All Blocks in the sidebar.
2. Select the Metrics you want to duplicate and then click Duplicate Metrics.

   You can duplicate a maximum of 20 Metrics at a time.

3. Select which options you require for the batch of duplicated Metrics. 
4. (Optional) If you toggle on Formulas in the Duplicate options, you can update the Metric formulas to automatically reference the other duplicates within the same selection.
5. Click Duplicate. 

Batch Block Rename 

You can update several Block names at once by either finding and replacing text, or by adding a prefix or suffix, to the existing Block name. 

1. Click All Blocks in the sidebar.
2. Select the Blocks you want to rename. 
3. Click Rename Blocks.
   The Rename Blocks pane opens. 
4. To rename Blocks by locating and replacing specific text in the Block name, do the following:
   a. Click Replace. 
   b. Enter the text you want to find. 
   c. Enter the new replacement text. 
   d. (Optional) Toggle on if the searched text needs to have the exact case. 
   e. (Optional) Toggle on if the searched text needs to be located at the start of the Block name.
   f. Click Rename Blocks. 
5. To rename Blocks by adding a prefix or a suffix to the Block name, do the following:
   a. Click Add text. 
   b. Enter the text you want to append to the Block name. 
   c. Indicate if you want the new text at the start or at the end of the current Block name.
   d. Click Rename Blocks. 

Edit the structure of multiple Metrics

You can edit the structure of multiple Metrics from All Blocks. To prevent unintended uses of this functionality, Pigment has made this an opt-in feature. 

1. In the Sidebar, click your initials in the top left to open your menu. 
2. Select Account Settings to open Advanced features. 
3. Toggle on Edit Metric structure in bulk.

You’re now able to change the data type and structure of multiple Metrics at once.  

See also: 

• Work with tables to summarize information
• Play with your view