Creating a master measure with a common aggregation function

When you are working with an unpublished app, you can create master measures so that they can be reused. You can easily create a measure using one of the most common aggregation functions by selecting the function and the field from drop-down lists.

Do the following:

1. Click Edit sheet in the toolbar.

   The assets panel opens on the left-hand side.

2. Click to select the master items tab.

3. Click the Measures heading to expand that category.

4. Click Create new.

   The Create new measure dialog opens.

5. Click in the Expression field to open the Add expression dialog.

   You find drop-down lists for selecting a field and a common function on the right-hand side.

6. If you want to show fields from a particular table, select this table in the top drop-down list (optional).
7. Select a field from the Field drop-down list.

8. Select a function from the bottom drop-down list.

   Tip: You can insert just a field by not selecting a function.

9. Click Insert to insert the field and the function into the expression editor.

   Tip: You can open the online help with the full description of how to use the current function by double-clicking the function name in the expression editor and pressing Ctrl+H on the keyboard. This feature becomes available after having entered the first parenthesis of the expression after the function name, and only when using a computer with a keyboard.

10. Click Apply to close the Add expression dialog.

    Now you need to add some descriptive data for the measure.

11. Type a name for the measure.

12. Type a description for the measure (optional).

13. If you want to specify a color, click in the color drop down and select a color through one of the following methods:

    • Click one of the colors in the palette.
    • Type a 6 character color code in the Hex input field.
    • Click at the bottom of the dialog, select a color in the color wheel, and optionally adjust the saturation slider.

14. Add tags (optional).

15. Under Number formatting, you can choose:

    • Auto
    • Number
    • Money
    • Date
    • Duration
    • Custom
    • Measure expression

16. Click Create.

The measure is now saved in the Measures category in the master items, and you can use it in visualizations.

Basic aggregation functions