Issue with visualizing line graph from filtered free form table

[JacobC1]

I have filters on a free form table and when I right click to create a line graph visualization, the numbers are completely off.

• Line graph shows 22,000 people in August
• Free form shows 850 people total in the entire data range. 

This is so frustrating to have to export this data and create visualizations in excel. Any advice would be appreciated. 

[MandyGeorge · Accepted solution]

Based on your screenshot having the metric "people" I'm assuming you're using CJA and not Analysis Workspace? I've only used CJA a little bit, but I attempted to build something similar. I made a table and a line graph from it, and then did a filter on the table, but the line graph didn't change. So I was able to replicate the same issue that you're having. I tried the same thing in Analysis Workspace, and wasn't able to replicate it, the filter impacted the table and the line graph correctly.

I don't know enough about CJA to know if this is a bug or a feature. But given the fact that it doesn't do the same thing in Workspace, I think it's a bug. I would recommend sending in a ticket to client care, include screenshots of the table and graph both before and after adding the filter, to show that it isn't changing. Hopefully they can help you figure out what is happening. 

[JacobC1]

Yes this is CJA. I will certainly do that. On further review, I noticed that the total isn't even correct in the free form table. By the table's calculation, these pages total 850 people but the sum is actually 1,236 people. 

[MandyGeorge]

Actually, the tables sum is correct. This is because the total for a freeform table can either be a "grand total" or a "column sum." 

With the dimension that you have in your table, page URL, the people column is telling you how many unique visitors saw each of the URL. It's very possible that one person can see more than one URL in their time on your site. Having the grand total at the top, which is what your number currently is, tells you the total number of people that saw all URLs. So it deduplicates the amount. For example:

Visitor 1

Page A

Page B

Page C

Visitor 2

Page B

Page C

Visitor 3 

Page A

Page D

You would end up with a table like this

                    People

                       3 

Page A            3

Page B            2

Page C            1

Page D            1

If you were to add up all of those rows, you would get 7. But we didn't have 6 people, we only had 3. But each person saw more than one page. Fortunately we don't have to do a lot of complex work to find out the unique amount of people overall - the grand total deduplicates the rows and gives you the unique amount of people hitting your site.

[JacobC1]

Thanks. I was unaware of the difference between those factors. 

I went into the column setting and deselected "show grand total" but am seeing no change. Not sure where to go from here.

[MandyGeorge]

Clicking "show grand total" just shows/hides the total that is at the top. What determines whether it is a "grand total" or "column sum" is based on how you've brought the dimension in. 

Generally speaking, dragging and dropping an entire dimension, whether or not you use a filter, will show you a deduplicated total.

If you drag and drop individual dimension items (instead of the whole field) or select a few rows and use the right click option to "display only selected rows" then it will give you a column sum. This is because those options treat each row like it's own dimension, and not as a group of items that are a part of the same overall dimension. 

So in a case like this, you wouldn't want to add up all the individual rows, it's going to artificially inflate your count of unique visitors. The deduplicated total is going to give you a more accurate number.

I'm trying to find some good documentation to link to about this difference, but I can't find anything that explains it well. I'll update if I do find something. (or if others have good resources they can link to, please do)