Counter Evars: Can they measure ZERO ?

[Alandy_Iceboats]

I have a circumstance where we are being asked to measure when something is ZERO, but also accumulate the total before an event

It is understood that the absence of an evar would be 'Unspecified' but in this particular request the ask is to have "0" displayed along with the other accumulated digits

Judging by the absence of any documentation about not incrementing a counter evar, I assume that "=0" "=+0" OR "=-0" would not work

Further in the event of a visit that never accumulates, I doubt that a "0" would render in reporting (assuming any of the above did work)

My expectation is that the solution is to not set the evar, but only accumulate with "=+N" and assume Unspecified means the visitor has not accumulated yet

I recognize this is an outlier use case, but perhaps someone has had a similar request

[Urs_Boller]

I don't think you can send a zero event and report on that - but never tryed it your neither I know the answer.

A similar case from our implementation is the search. we have a counter event for the number of search results (only set if there are any search results). and a second event which is set on each performed search (set to 1 for each search). this way we can filter on hits where "search" is 1 and "search results" does not exists - giving us the number of searches without result.

other options to get the zero results:

- set a 3rd event if search has no results

- if you have an evar (eg. search term), you can use "eVar instances" for the total searches performed.

hope that helps ...

[Alandy_Iceboats]

Thank you for the reply

This is particularly referring to the Counter setting for eVars. I think your response (which is correct) is in the context of numeric events?

[Urs_Boller]

oh, sorry for that, should have read the question more carefully but never tried counter eVars with zero neither ...

[Alandy_Iceboats · Accepted solution]

Since there is no Adobe documentation on this apart from defining the ability to increment or decrement an integer, I'm going to go with my gut and say that it is not a valid use of a Counter eVar

As a solution through sterile testing, I have proved that 'Unspecified' truly represents the absence of being exposed to this Counter eVar and the team is satisfied with the answer