Overview
The Date Range Chart Transform is a Date Filter for a Metric. For example, if you want your Chart to display data for the current month, you would set the Date Range to “This Month.”
The Date Range set in Data Explorer is saved as the Metric’s default date period; however, the Date Range can also be referenced in Expanded View and Dashboard Filtering so you can update the date period of a metric outside of the builder for ad hoc analysis.
How to use the Date Range Chart Transform
Display Date Range
The Date Range defaults to “Display All Data.” This means your Chart will always display all available data when you first build the metric. You can edit the range of data displayed by selecting any of Grow’s preset Date Ranges (ex: Last 30 days, This Quarter, Month to Date, etc.) or you can set a Custom Range.
The Date Picker always shows the same preset ranges. If you select a Date Range that is larger than your range of data in the Charted Report, Grow can only display the available data in the report. For example, if you select “Last 2 Years” for your Date Range but your Charted Report only has data for this month, Grow will only be able to display data for this month. If you want to display data for the last two years, you need to update the Data Settings on the Data Tab of the Builder.
If your Charted Report contains a date column, the Date Range Chart Transform is always enabled. This means any metric with a date column can be filtered by date in Expanded View or using Dashboard Filtering. Additionally, any data limited through the Date Range Filter is still accessible on the Dashboard. For example, if I set the Date Range to “This Month” but my Charted Report contains data for the last year, anyone with access to the Metric on the Dashboard can update the Date Range Filter in Expanded View or using Dashboard Filtering and see all of the data for the last year. If you want to restrict the data to only show for “This Month,” you need to use a Filter on the Data Tab, not the Date Range Filter in Data Explorer. We only recommend using a Date Filter on the Data tab in this scenario, otherwise please default to using the Date Range Filter in Data Explorer so your metrics are dynamic.
What date column do you want to use?
The “What date column do you want to use?” dropdown allows you to tell Grow what date column you want your metric to reference. For example, in a Sales Dataset, you might have ‘Close Date’ (the date an opportunity closed) and a ‘Created Date’ (the date an opportunity was opened). Selecting ‘Close Date’ will display different data versus selecting ‘Created Date.’
The Date column is automatically selected depending on your Metric’s configurations. For example, if the Chart is grouped by a date column, the Date Range Transform will select the initial Date Grouping column.
However, if you change the Grouping selection to another Date column, the Date Range will continue to reference the original Grouping selection. You will need to manually update the “What date column do you want to use?” dropdown to reference the new date column.
If your Chart is not grouped by a Date column, Data Explorer will automatically select the first date column it recognizes in the Charted Report.
If Data Explorer does not recognize a Date column in the Charted Reported, the Date Range Chart Transform is disabled and no date filter can be applied. Please note, if your Charted Report does have a date column, you can use the Data Typing Transform on the Data Tab to convert the column to a date.
Error States
If the selected date column can no longer be referenced, the Date Range Chart Transform will break and show an error in the Builder. The date column selection could break for two reasons:
- The selected Date Column no longer exists in the data (i.e. the column name was changed or the column was dropped)
- The selected Date Column is no longer a Date datatype (i.e. the column’s datatype is now text or numeric)
The error can be resolved on its own or by a user. For example, a user could resolve this error by selecting a new date column, or the error can be resolved on its own if the selected date column can be referenced again. Data Explorer will reference the date column again if the column name can be found or if the data type changes back to a date column.