2598754 - Issues with Time Filters and Drill Levels in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)

Issues with Time Filters and Drill Levels in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)

• SAP Analytics Cloud

1. Connect to SAP Analytics Cloud
2. Click "Create a new Story"
3. Click "Add a Canvas Page"
4. Click "Chart"
5. Choose Existing Model with a Fiscal Period "Time" Dimension
6. Click "OK"
7. Add a MEASURE
8. Add DIMENSION "Time"
9. Filter DIMENSION "Time" by Range...
10. Select "Dynamic"
11. Select Granularity = "Quarter"
12. Set "Look Back" = 12
13. Click "OK"
14. Issue 1: Notice that chart shows down to the Period level and there is no way to only show down to the Quarter level
15. Change Filter on DIMENSION "Time" by Range... to "Fixed"
16. Change "To" year to "End"
17. Click "OK"
18. Issue 2: Notice that chart shows down to the Period level and there is no way to only show down to the Quarter level with Fixed as well
19. Select "Create a new Story"
20. Click "Add a Canvas Page"
21. Click "Chart"
22. Choose Existing Model "BestRunJuice_SampleModel"
23. Click "OK"
24. Add MEASURE "Quantity sold"
25. Add DIMENSION "Date"
26. Filter DIMENSION "Date" by Range...
27. Select "Dynamic"
28. Select Granularity = "Half Year"
29. Set "Look Back" = 6
30. Click "OK"
31. Issue 1: Notice that chart shows down to the Month level and there is no way to only show down to the Quarter level
32. Change Filter on DIMENSION "Date" by Range... to "Fixed"
33. Select Granularity = "Half Year"
34. Change "To" year to "End"
35. Click "OK"
36. Notice that chart correctly does NOT show Months

This behaviour is expected.

There is one common condition for the issue to show up: there is not enough data recorded for the entire duration of the chosen granularity.

Here is a further explanation using some concrete examples:

Example 1) Let's say the model has data from 2014 P08 to 2016 P07 and we define a dynamic range filter to look back 12 quarters.

The dynamic range filter definition would include the data from 2015 Q3 to 2018 Q3.

Compare this to the actual amount of data stored in the model and you can see that there is not enough data to show in 2016 Q3 (as there is data only up to 2016 P07, which is part of 2016 Q3).

Thus to make sure the correct data is returned, behind the scene the start and finish end points of the date range is adjusted to the next granularity level: from 2015 P07 to 2016 P07.

The effect is that now the chart is showing the period granularity level instead of the quarter granularity level as you may expect.

Example 2) The behaviour is also present if a static range is defined to cover the period from year 2014 to 2016.

As you can recall there is only partial data for the year 2014 (from P8 onward) to 2016 (ends at P07).

Thus defining such a range filter at the year granularity would change the chart to show the data at the period level (as we have complete data for each period).

Workaround) If you desire to have control over the granularity level shown in the chart. One workaround is to define the filter outside of the chart by defining the date range filter in the page or story level.

This way the chart's granularity level is not impacted by the filter and you can drill to the desired level after the filter is created.

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