Measures
A measure is the number a dashboard tile shows, such as the number of supporters you have or your total donations this year. Charts, cubes, tables, maps, and number tiles all display at least one measure.
Each measure combines:
- What you measure: a table, a variable, an audience, a FastStats selection, a behaviour, or an expression
- How it's summarised: a function, such as Sum, that turns the values of many records into a single number. Tables, audiences, and FastStats selections are always counted.
Measures and dimensions
Most tiles pair measures with dimensions. A dimension splits your data into categories, such as region or gift type, and the measure gives the number for each category. On a column chart, the dimension's categories run along one axis and the measure sets the height of each column.
A number tile has a measure but no dimension, so it shows a single figure.
When you add a dimension, or a map definition on a map tile, Orbit adds a measure for you: a count of the table it belongs to. A Destination dimension from the Bookings table gets a count of bookings, and a Postal Area dimension from the Households table gets a count of households. If that isn't what you want to show, remove the measure and add your own. For example, to shade a postal area map by the number of people rather than households, replace the Households measure with the People table.
What you can measure
You choose what to measure in the data picker, the same dialogue you use across Orbit. For the kinds of variable you can choose, see Types of variables.
| Measure | What the tile shows |
|---|---|
| A table | The number of records in the table, such as people or donations |
| A numeric or currency variable | A summary of the variable's values, such as the total or average donation amount |
| An audience | The number of records in the audience |
| A FastStats selection | The number of records in the selection |
| A behaviour | Recency, frequency, or value statistics for your contacts, summarised with a function |
| An expression | A value you calculate for each record with an expression, then summarise with a function. A measure only accepts a numeric expression |
Not every tile type accepts every kind of measure. For example, you can't use a behaviour as a measure on a Venn tile.
To add a measure to a tile, see the page for your tile type in Tile types. For each measure's settings, see Measure settings.
Functions
A function summarises the values of many records into the single number shown in each cell, column, or tile.
For a whole table, the function is always Count. For a numeric or currency variable, or an expression, choose the function that answers your question from the Function dropdown:
| Function | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Sum | The total of all values |
| Mean | The average value |
| Variable Count | The number of records with a value, ignoring missing values |
| Minimum | The smallest value |
| Maximum | The largest value |
| Median | The middle value, when the values are sorted |
| Mode | The most common value |
| Variance | How widely the values are spread around the mean |
| Standard Deviation | The square root of the variance, in the same units as the values |
| Lower Quartile | The value a quarter of the way through the sorted values |
| Upper Quartile | The value three quarters of the way through the sorted values |
| Inter Quartile Range | The difference between the upper and lower quartiles |
| Count Distinct | The number of different values |
When you add a behaviour as a measure, you also choose a function to summarise it.
Combining measures
To show a ratio or a difference, such as the average amount given per supporter, combine two measures in a calculated measure. A calculated measure adds, subtracts, multiplies, or divides two measures to give one result.
For a calculation that two measures can't express, build an expression as the measure instead.
Putting it together
One dashboard often uses several kinds of measure side by side.
Example use case
A fundraising team builds a dashboard with four number tiles:
- Supporters: the People table, which counts every supporter
- Total donations: the Donation Amount variable, with the Sum function
- Lapsed supporters: the team's Lapsed Supporters audience
- Average per supporter: a calculated measure dividing total donations by the number of supporters
Measures in audience workbooks
Measures work in the same way on the cube, chart, and map pages of an audience workbook. A workbook cube can also show each cell as a percentage of its row or column, or as an index.