# Recency

**Date** and **DateTime** variables can be applied in Recency aggregations.

**Text** variables are also supported where relevant - see [Recency relative text](<https://help.apteco.com/en/faststats/expressions/aggregations-on-the-fly/recency-relative-text/index.md>) for a worked example.

## Scenario 1

Identify the duration of a person's last web visit.

- Click on the **Add Aggregation** button
- Click on the tab entitled **FrequencyBookings** and change the **Type** box to show **Recency**
- Set the **Grouping Table** to **People** and the **Transactional Table** to **Web Visits**
- Change the **From** option to **Latest to Earliest** and leave the **Select WebVisit number** as **1** to pick the latest one
- Drag **Duration** onto the **Pick the** drop box as your item variable

You can use a **Data Grid** to validate the results:

## Scenario 2

Identify people who have made more than 2 bookings where the destination of their first and last booking is the same.

As the screen shot suggests, there are 3 aggregations making up the overall expression here:

### Part 1

- Enter an **If(** function followed by an **And(** function
- Click on the **Add Aggregation** button
- Click on the **Frequency(Bookings)** tab and change the **Transactional Table** to **Bookings**
- Return to the **Expression** tab and enter **\>2** after the **Frequency(Bookings}** statement followed by a **comma**

### Part 2

- Enter the **DescOf(** function and then click on the **Add Aggregation** button
- Click on the **Frequency(Communications)** tab and change the **Type** box to **Recency**
- Change the **Transactional Table** to **Bookings**
- Drag the **Booking Date** variable on to the **Order records by** drop box
- Drag the **Destination** variable onto the **Pick the** drop box

  Note: Whilst a default **Name** is allocated to each aggregation within the overall expression, these can be easily over-typed, if required - e.g. We could re-label this as "First Booking Destination" (see screenshot below) - In the expression window enter a closed bracket **)** followed by the equals symbol **\=**

### Part 3

- Enter the **DescOf(** function and then click on the **Add Aggregation** button
- Click on the new **Frequency(Communications)** tab and change the **Type** box to **Recency**
- Change the **Transactional Table** to **Bookings**
- Drag the **Booking Date** variable on to the **Order records by** drop box
- Change the **From** box to show **Latest to Earliest**
- Drag the **Destination** variable onto the **Pick the** drop box
- Rename this as "Last Booking Destination"
- In the expression window enter the following after `{Last Booking Destination}` **)),1,0)**
- Click the **Build** button to see a preview of the results

A **Data Grid** can be used to validate the results.

## Scenario 3

Recency Select Nth and Select Nth Distinct 'on the fly' aggregations can support textual items. Note that these aggregations return an integer and, as a result, it is necessary to use the Expression function **VarValueText** to look up a relevant text value from the variable. The example below identifies the first booking tweet a person made, and the Expression ensures that we can view the result as text.