Set Comparison to Prior Period that Auto Adjusts Based on the Current Date Range | Community
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aent22
Level 2
December 26, 2024
Solved

Set Comparison to Prior Period that Auto Adjusts Based on the Current Date Range

  • December 26, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1364 views

Hello All! 

 

I'm trying to set a comparison time period throughout all panels in my dashboard to Prior Period, meaning that I want the data to be compared to an identical time period prior to the selected current date range. 

 

 

Example:

 

date range: past full 7 days 

comparison: 7 full days prior to that time; 

 

date range: Dec 10 - Dec 15 

comparison: Dec 4 - Dec 9 (equal number of days prior to the selected date range)

 

etc

 

I'm looking to get this comparison date range to auto-adjust based on the time I select for the date range. Is it possible in Adobe? 

 

I don't see options to set such comparison at the moment:

 

- the "Add time period column" section only includes options to set fixed time periods to prior time or last year which is not what I'm looking for

- the custom date range option doesn't let you set an auto adjusting comparison range

 

 Appreciate your help! Thank you!

 

 

Best answer by bjoern__koth

Hi @aent22 

this auto-adjustment is unfortunately currently not possible. I added this as a needed product idea recently.

 

Would be cool if you upvoted it to give it some attention. From Adobe side.


Maybe we're lucky, this is surely a much-needed feature

 

 

3 replies

RiteshY18
Community Advisor
Community Advisor
December 27, 2024

@aent22  may be not what you looking for  but below is possible where when you change time for range it auto adjust 

 

bjoern__koth
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
bjoern__kothCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAccepted solution
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
December 27, 2024

Hi @aent22 

this auto-adjustment is unfortunately currently not possible. I added this as a needed product idea recently.

 

Would be cool if you upvoted it to give it some attention. From Adobe side.


Maybe we're lucky, this is surely a much-needed feature

 

 

Cheers from Switzerland!
aent22
aent22Author
Level 2
January 3, 2025

Thanks @bjoern__koth ! I went ahead an upvoted your post about the Previous Period. That is spot on! Hope that gets implemented at some point! 

MandyGeorge
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
December 27, 2024

This is possible, and there are two steps that you need to do for this.

First, create a time period column that has a rolling date range. If you want the previous 7 days to your time period, set it up like this:

 

The second step is to set up the date range in your panel. I've got it set to the last 7 days, then I've also selected the two options at the bottom - rolling date range and make dates relative. The rolling date range will make sure it's always the last 7 days. The second option is the important one - making date ranges relative. What this does is it makes all of the date range columns in your panel relative to the date range. So, rather than being the last 7 days from today, it makes it the last 7 days from your date range.

 

So when you bring in dates, it looks like this:

 

You can see in the last screenshot, when I add my "last 7 days" date range, it makes it relative to the date in the panel and gives me the previous 7 days.

 

One thing I will call out about this is that the number of days in the comparison date range doesn't change. If you do the last 7 days in your purple date range, and then change your panel to 14 days, the purple column will stay at 7 days. But it will always give you the comparison to the first date in your panel date range.

 

aent22
aent22Author
Level 2
January 3, 2025

Thank you for this detailed reply @mandygeorge !

This is very close to what I need but, unfortunately, not exactly the same - I was looking to set the comparison to a dynamic period in the past that auto-adjusts to the same period (number of days) in the past. Similar to what's available in Google Looker Studio https://support.google.com/looker-studio/answer/9272806 

 

with that, whatever date range you set in the panel the comparison date range always adjust to match it with the same in the past (it's important for some of the dashboards/reports we use)  

 

Jennifer_Dungan
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
December 27, 2024

As others have said, Adobe does allow for relative comparisons based on a selected date but it is locked to a set number of days (i.e. it is locked to 7 days, or whatever you set up in your date range definition), but there is no way to make a truly comparative date range reflecting both the selected dates and the span of the selected range.

 

However, you can do this in Excel with Report Builder. So depending on your needs, you may have to consider creating this report outside of Adobe.

 

To do this with Report Builder, instead of choosing any of the pre-defined date ranges, use "Dates from Cells", then have to and from cells set up for you or someone to input the date range, then in a hidden sheet (so that no one can break it) use Excel formulas to calculate the comparison to and from based on the inputted values.

aent22
aent22Author
Level 2
January 3, 2025

Thank you @jennifer_dungan! I'll keep that in mind and will use the Report Builder for now as you mentioned. We'll adapt, but hoping to see that feature added to Adobe at some point.