Overriding Insight Attributes with BY Keyword
Metrics can be added to insights, where they determine what data the insight computes and displays. But because insights may have any number of filters and attributes that further determine how insight data is computed, metrics are contextually impacted by the characteristics of the insights 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 insight characteristics. This is where MAQL’s BY keywords for overriding insight attributes come into play.
For example, you could use a MAQL BY keyword to keep a metric from being affected by insight filters, or to override insight attributes. Or you can also use the BY keyword to set an aggregation floor. Even if the attributes of a certain insight would serve to break a metric down by a smaller grain, BY keywords can keep the metric values aggregated at a higher level.
MAQL keywords are added to metric syntax in the following order: BY clauses, WHERE clauses, WITHOUT clauses. Note that the order of MAQL keywords is alphabetical.
Review the following sections to learn about BY keywords for overriding insight attributes: