OBIEE Time Series AGO AND TODAE FUNCTIONS

Time series functions provide the ability to compare business performance with previous time periods, allowing you to analyze data that spans multiple time periods. For example, time series functions enable comparisons between current sales and sales a year ago, a month ago, and so on.

• You may only enter AGO and TODATE functions in the Expression Builder in the  Adminisration Tool.
• You cannot use them in coded SQL.
• Functions are for relational data sources only

The Ago and ToDate functions allow you use Expression Builder  to call a logical function to perform time series calculations instead of aliasing physical tables and modeling logically.

The time series functions calculate Period Ago and Period to Date functions based on user supplied calendar tables, not on standard SQL date manipulation functions

The TODATE function accumulates the measure from the beginning of the time series grain period to the current displayed query grain period.

ToDate aggregates a measure attribute from the beginning of a specified time period to the currently displayed time. For example, this function can calculate Year to Date sales.

If unsupported metrics are requested, NULL values will be returned and a warning entry will be written to the  file NQ.Querylog file when the logginlevel equals three or above.

A ToDate function may not be nested within another ToDate function.

You can nest exactly one ToDate and multiple Ago functions if they each have the same level argument.

Syntax:

TODATE(<measure_expression>, <level>)