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MinString - chart function

MinString() finds string values in the expression or field and returns the first text value in alphabetical sort order.

Syntax:  

MinString({[SetExpression] [TOTAL [<fld {, fld}>]]} expr)

Return data type: dual

Arguments:  

Arguments
Argument Description
expr The expression or field containing the data to be measured.
SetExpression By default, the aggregation function will aggregate over the set of possible records defined by the selection. An alternative set of records can be defined by a set analysis expression.
TOTAL

If the word TOTAL occurs before the function arguments, the calculation is made over all possible values given the current selections, and not just those that pertain to the current dimensional value, that is, it disregards the chart dimensions.

By using TOTAL [<fld {.fld}>], where the TOTAL qualifier is followed by a list of one or more field names as a subset of the chart dimension variables, you create a subset of the total possible values.

Defining the aggregation scope

Examples and results:  

Sample data
SalesGroup Amount MinString(Team) MinString(Date)
East 14000 Delta 2013/08/01
East 20000 Beta 2013/05/01
East 25000 Alpha 2013/07/01
West 14000 Eta 2013/10/01
West 17000 Epsilon 2013/09/01
West 19000 Zeta 2013/06/01
West 23000 Theta 2013/12/01
Function examples
Examples Results

MinString(Team)

There are three values of 20000 for the dimension Amount: two of Gamma (on different dates), and one of Beta. The result of the measure MinString (Team) is therefore Beta, because this is the first value in the sorted strings.

MinString(Date)

2013/11/01 is the earliest Date value of the three associated with the dimension Amount. This assumes your script has the SET statement SET DateFormat='YYYY-MM-DD';'

Data used in example:

TeamData:

LOAD * inline [

SalesGroup|Team|Date|Amount

East|Gamma|01/05/2013|20000

East|Gamma|02/05/2013|20000

West|Zeta|01/06/2013|19000

East|Alpha|01/07/2013|25000

East|Delta|01/08/2013|14000

West|Epsilon|01/09/2013|17000

West|Eta|01/10/2013|14000

East|Beta|01/11/2013|20000

West|Theta|01/12/2013|23000

] (delimiter is '|');

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