So, I'm trying to build a segment that, in part, excludes certain date ranges. It's not really working out and, after troubleshooting a bit, I think the problem is simply that we can't build a segment that excludes a date range. This is really problematic since a common use case for segments is to filter out problematic data; sometimes, this can be date-bound.
I've created a very simple scenario to illustrate:
- Pull up Key Metrics report with no segments applied to view Page Views, Visits, and Unique Visitors.

- Create a segment called "Yesterday Segment", which is based on hits occurring "Yesterday" (i.e., the out-of-the-box "Yesterday" date range). Only data for yesterday is present in the report (yay!).

- Create a segment called "EXCLUDE: Yesterday", which simply excludes the "Yesterday Segment". Or, you can base it on the "Yesterday" date range. I expected that data for all other days except yesterday would be present, but it seems to have eliminated all data. I've also tried wrapping the exclusion inside a container, in case that might do the trick, but no luck.

Anyone have any clever ideas? I've been fighting this all morning - in a much more complex segment and spent most of the morning figuring I have problems with contains, includes/excludes, ands/ors in other parts of the segment. It turns out it was just the time-based portion of the rule that isn't working....
Thanks,
Jason