Periodic Operators :: SAS(R) Visual Analytics 6.4: User's Guide

About Periodic Operators

Periodic operators aggregate values over a period of time.

If you assign a periodic aggregated item to a visualization or report object that contains dates, the aggregated item displays the aggregated values for each time period in the visualization or report object.

In a visualization or report object that does not contain dates, the aggregated item displays values that use today’s date as a reference. If the date data item for the operator does not contain data for the interval that contains today’s date, then the operator returns missing values.

Periodic operators are evaluated using time intervals. Intervals specify whether the aggregation is applied on a monthly basis, a quarterly basis, and so on. You can specify a specific interval, or you can specify that the interval is inferred. For an inferred interval, the aggregation is evaluated based on its context in the visualization or report object. For example, if your visualization contains a bar chart of sales by month, then the inferred interval is monthly.

Note: Periodic operators return a missing value in the following scenarios:

Data does not exist for the specified time period.
The date data item for the period calculation does not match the date data item in the visualization or report object. You must use the same date data item or a duplicate data item that is based on the same data item.
The interval for the operator is smaller than the interval of the date format in the visualization or report object (for example, if your interval is by month, but the date format is Year).
For operators that use inner and outer intervals, the inner interval is larger than the outer interval.
The inferred interval is by week of the year or by an interval smaller than a day.
The inferred interval is by day for any operator that has an offset other than 0.

For the explorer, the ParallelPeriod and RelativePeriod operators always return a missing value when the inferred interval is by day.

CumulativePeriod

The CumulativePeriod operator returns aggregated values for a period of time, including the previous periods within a larger period of time (for example, the year-to-date total).

Specify the following parameters:

Parameters for the CumulativePeriod Operator

1	The aggregation that is applied to the measure.
2	The measure to aggregate over time.
3	The date data item for the period calculation. Only data items whose formats specify year are available.
4	The inner interval for which the values are aggregated. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the inner interval and _ByYear_ as the outer interval to aggregate the year-to-date values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
5	The outer interval that provides the context for the cumulative aggregation. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the inner interval and _ByYear_ as the outer interval to aggregate the year-to-date values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
6	The number of outer intervals to offset from the current period. 0 specifies that the period from the current outer interval is used. A negative value indicates a previous interval. For example, if your inner interval is by month and your outer interval is by year, then -1 specifies the year-to-date monthly values for the previous year.
7	The scope for the period. The scope specifies how much of each period is aggregated. Select one of the following: _Full_ aggregates the values for the entire period. _ToDate_ aggregates only the values up to a specific day of the outer interval. _ToToday_ aggregates only the values up to the equivalent of today’s position in the current interval. For example, if today is the 40th day of the quarter, and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used. The value for today is evaluated dynamically whenever the aggregated item is viewed in a visualization or report object.
8	If you select _ToDate_ as the scope, then select the date that is used to subset each period. For example, if you select 09NOV2013, and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used in the aggregation.

For example,

CumulativePeriod(_Sum_, 'Expenses'n, 'Date'n, _ByMonth_, _ByYear_, 0, _Full_)

aggregates the sum of year-to-date monthly values for the Expenses measure using date values from the Date data item.

ParallelPeriod

The ParallelPeriod operator returns aggregated values for a period of time that is parallel to the current period (for example, the same month of the previous year).

Specify the following parameters:

Parameters for the ParallelPeriod Operator

1	The aggregation that is applied to the measure.
2	The measure to aggregate over time.
3	The date data item for the period calculation. Only data items whose formats specify year are available.
4	The inner interval for which the values are aggregated. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the inner interval to aggregate the values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
5	The outer interval that provides the context for the parallel period aggregation. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the inner interval and _ByYear_ as the outer interval to aggregate the monthly values for a different year. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
6	The number of outer intervals to offset from the current period. 0 specifies that the period from the current outer interval is used. A negative value indicates a previous interval. For example, if your inner interval is by month and your outer interval is by year, then -1 specifies the monthly values for the previous year.
7	The scope for the period. The scope specifies how much of each period is aggregated. Select one of the following: _Full_ aggregates the values for the entire period. _ToDate_ aggregates only the values up to a specific day of the outer interval. _ToToday_ aggregates only the values up to the equivalent of today’s position in the current interval. For example, if today is the 40th day of the quarter, and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used. The value for today is evaluated dynamically whenever the aggregated item is viewed in a visualization or report object.
8	If you select _ToDate_ as the scope, then select the date that is used to subset each period. For example, if you select 09NOV2013 and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used in the aggregation.

For example,

ParallelPeriod(_Sum_, 'Expenses'n, 'Date'n, _ByMonth_, _ByYear_, -1, _Full_)

aggregates the sum of monthly values for the Expenses measure for the previous year using date values from the Date data item.

Period

The Period operator returns aggregated values for a period of time (for example, the current month).

Specify the following parameters:

Parameters for the Period Operator

1	The aggregation that is applied to the measure.
2	The measure to aggregate over time.
3	The date data item for the period calculation. Only data items whose formats specify year are available.
4	The interval for which the values are aggregated. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the interval to aggregate the values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.

For example,

Period(_Sum_, 'Expenses'n, 'Date'n, _ByMonth_)

aggregates the sum of monthly values for the Expenses measure using date values from the Date data item.

PeriodWithDate

The PeriodWithDate operator returns aggregated values for a specific, constant period of time (for example, the month that includes 15OCT2013).

Specify the following parameters:

Parameters for the PeriodWithDate Operator

1	The aggregation that is applied to the measure.
2	The measure to aggregate over time.
3	The date data item for the period calculation. Only data items whose formats specify year are available.
4	The interval for which the values are aggregated. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the interval to aggregate the values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
5	The reference date for the period aggregation.

For example,

PeriodWithDate(_Sum_, 'Expenses'n, 'Date'n, _ByMonth_, '15OCT2013'd)

aggregates the sum of monthly values for the Expenses measure using date values from the Date data item.

RelativePeriod

The RelativePeriod operator returns aggregated values for a period of time that is relative to the current period (for example, the previous month of the same year).

Specify the following parameters:

Parameters for the RelativePeriod Operator

1	The aggregation that is applied to the measure.
2	The measure to aggregate over time.
3	The date data item for the period calculation. Only data items whose formats specify year are available.
4	The interval for which the values are aggregated. For example, specify _ByMonth_ as the interval to aggregate the year-to-date values for each month. Select one of the following: _Inferred_ specifies that the interval is determined automatically from the visualization or report object that displays the aggregated item. _ByMonth_ specifies a monthly interval. _ByQuarter_ specifies a quarterly interval. _ByYear_ specifies a yearly interval.
5	The number of intervals to offset from the current period. 0 specifies that the period from the current interval is used. A negative value indicates a previous interval. For example, if your interval is by month, then -1 specifies the monthly values for the previous month.
6	The scope for the period. The scope specifies how much of each period is aggregated. Select one of the following: _Full_ aggregates the values for the entire period. _ToDate_ aggregates only the values up to a specific day of the interval. _ToToday_ aggregates only the values up to the equivalent of today’s position in the current interval. For example, if today is the 40th day of the quarter, and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used. The value for today is evaluated dynamically whenever the aggregated item is viewed in a visualization or report object.
7	If you select _ToDate_ as the scope, then select the date that is used to subset each period. For example, if you select 09NOV2013 and the outer interval is by quarter, then only the values up to the 40th day of each quarter are used in the aggregation.

For example,

RelativePeriod(_Sum_, 'Expenses'n, 'Date'n, _ByMonth_, -1, _Full_)

aggregates the sum of monthly values for the Expenses measure for the previous month using date values from the Date data item.