Comparison Periods
The same measure over a window pushed backwards, run as a second aggregate and subtracted, so a figure arrives already carrying what it read the last time anybody looked at it.
The same window, pushed backwards
2 aggregates, 1 measure- KPI
- CATEGORICAL
- SERIES
- SCATTER
- TABLE
- GAUGE
- HIERARCHY
- embedded pathpreset stripped, 1 query
- on a board2 queries, result never drawn
Product figures from the platform’s own defaults - not customer averages
How it works.
The prior window is derived, not typed
The primary window resolves first. Previous-period then steps back by that window's own length, so a one-day window compares to yesterday and a fortnight to the fortnight before. The named shifts step a fixed week, month, quarter or year regardless of how long the primary window is.
The second pass is the first pass, moved
Identical joins, identical conditions, identical measure, only the date bounds swapped. Both bounds are half-open, so a window ends the instant the next one starts and no record is counted twice at the seam.
Anything carrying a measure gets one
The dispatcher builds the comparison alongside the primary query wherever there is a measure to compare. A single-figure card prints the difference under the number; a series chart plots the prior window beside the current one on the same axes.
A live widget drops it on purpose
A widget marked live swaps its change indicator for a pulse, because a moving number and a fixed benchmark do not belong on one tile. The preset is stripped before the query is assembled rather than after, so the round trip is saved instead of made and discarded.
One moment in every number.
Every number passes through the same seven. Comparison Periods is the lit one, and everything either side of it is a different page in this category.
- 01Query
what is asked, and of what
- 02Shape
the measure and the dimension
- 03Draw
the visual chosen for that shape
- 04Arrange
where it sits on a dashboard
- 05Filter
narrowing it after the fact
- 06Drill
going from the number to the rows
- 07Share
who else gets to see it
The specifics.
8 facts- Shifts
- Previous period, previous week, month, quarter or year, or two dates you name
- Primary presets
- Fifteen in total, counting the any-time entry and the custom pair
- Applies to
- Any shape carrying a measure. The card prints the difference, a chart draws the prior window beside the current one
- Cost
- One additional aggregate against the same tables
- Live widgets
- The indicator is hidden, and the extra round trip is skipped rather than made and thrown away
- Labelling
- Read from the pair of presets, so today against previous-period prints as yesterday. A custom pair prints its dates instead
- Reported bounds
- Queried half-open, reported with the last day inside, so a week reads as seven days rather than eight
- Not the same as
- Reference Lines, which marks a fixed target rather than the same measure moved in time
What this is assembled from.
A number on a dashboard was built somewhere before it was drawn. These are the parts it is made of.
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Reporting & Analytics
See comparison periods on your own floor.
Thirty minutes, your numbers and your data. We will set comparison periods up live and you can decide from the thing itself rather than from this page.
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