Base formulas are mathematical expressions created using existing facts in Strategy Developer that can be re-used to build any number of metrics.
What are base formulas?
Base formulas are mathematical expressions created using existing facts. These expressions are stored as simple formulas without any dimensionality, conditionality, or subtotals and they can be re-used to create any number of simple or complex metrics.
For example: a metric that calculates (SUM(FACT1+FACT2).)/ SUM(FACT3) could be defined using FORMULA1 as FORMULA1/SUM(FACT3).
NOTE: The expression used to create a base formula cannot have more than one aggregation function. For instance SUM(FACT1) + SUM(FACT2) is invalid but SUM(FACT1+FACT2) is valid.
Why to use Base Formulas?
Base formulas offer several advantages:
- Maintenance: It is much easier to make changes to many metrics through one base formula than to have to make the same change to many metrics individually.
- Usability: When creating complex metrics, users can work with expressions of a more manageable size.
- Categorization: Users can easily find all metrics that use a certain formula if they create the metrics using a Base Formula.
How to create base formulas?
- Open the metric editor and define the base formula expression in the same way a metric expression is defined.
NOTE: Keep in mind that only one aggregation operator may be used in each expression, and that any dimensiontlaity, conditionality, or subtotaling will be lost when the object is saved as a Base Formula.
- When ready to save the expression, save as type 'Base Formula' rather than type 'Metric.'
Follow the steps below to create the base metric:
- Open the metric editor and create a new metric.
- In the metric editor, create a valid expression using the available facts. A valid expression is one such as: SUM(FACT1 + FACT2).
An invalid expression would be one such as: SUM(FACT1) + SUM(FACT2).
