What does the Column Sum calculate?

[Uwe_Moeller-Goebel]

Hi,

the column sum function isn't behavin like I expected.. at all and hopefully someone has an explanation or even a solution for me.

Following case:

I have an page area name in on eVar

The product name in another one populate by prod syntax

If I want to know how much products were looked at and create a break-down with

> Page Area

>> Product Name

With Prod Views as metric each product shows the number of its own views and the total is lower because it counts unique 

So it may look like

> My Products  70 000

>> Prod A 50 000

>> Prod B 20 000

>> Prod C 20 000

>> Prod D 10 000

If I want a total sum of all the prod views in "My Products" (100 000) I assumed column sum now would do the trick because it sums up all the metic of a dimension item. (Reference basic functions | Adobe Analytics)

When I create a calc metric with "COLUMN SUM (Product Views)" the result would be something like 90 000 for the example above. If I dowload all the items and add them up the sum is higher than the column sum. 

Did anyone experience the same and/or has any explanation for this?
Maybe there is some obscure logic behind this which I simply don't see?

Thanks and best regards 

Uwe

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I haven't seen that, I just did a test on one of my eVars using Unique Visitors metrics (something small enough for me to see all the rows and do a quick check.

My manual adding of values (I did a quick and dirty copy rows to Excel and summed them), matched what the Column Sum showed. I did a second example using exactly the same dimension / metrics you specified (Products and Prod Views)... it also matched.

Have you refreshed the report, in case maybe something just had a temp issue?

[Uwe_Moeller-Goebel]

Hi Jennifer,

thanks for your feedback. The data seems to be up to date and I found that the column sum worked for any other page area but this one. I am still puzzeled about this but at least the columns sum does what I thought it would  

Thanks!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You're welcome.. but I am also puzzled... what you are describing seems very strange... 

You could try reaching out to Client Care and have them look specifically at your report where the function isn't working... they may be able to dig into the issue and why it's affecting only that one data set in your system.

[Uwe_Moeller-Goebel]

Yes, will do. I am curious for the outcome. Thank you!