Overriding Report Attributes with BY Keyword

Metrics can be added to reports, where they determine what data the report computes and displays. But because reports may have any number of filters and attributes that further determine how report data is computed, metrics are contextually impacted by the characteristics of the reports in which they reside.

At times, it may be useful to define a metric in a way that determines how the metric will be affected by these contextual report characteristics. This is where MAQL’s BY keywords for overriding report attributes come into play.

For example, you could use a MAQL BY keyword to keep a metric from being affected by report filters, or to override report attributes. Or you can also use the BY keyword to set an aggregation floor. Even if the attributes of a certain report would serve to break a metric down by a smaller grain, BY keywords can keep the metric values aggregated at a higher level.

Review the following sections to learn about BY keywords for overriding report attributes:

BY