Workspace date comparison doesn't work with custom dates?

[alim92960278]

Test project: one dimension, one metric (Visits).

1) I right-click on Visits and select "Compare time periods" and from the options I select "Custom date range to this date range"

2) I choose a date range and now I have Visits (with date range above it), Visits and a Percent Change column showing correct numbers.

3) I replace the date range above Visits with a pre-built custom date range but the Percent Change no longer reflects the numbers I'm comparing. Why?

Ideally, I would like to be able to change the panel date range and have the comparison date ranges change automatically but there doesn't seem to be a way to do this.

How can I have five metrics with Percentage Change for each one comparing the panel date with the same day of the previous week?

Do I have to manually update each of the five comparison date ranges (five metrics) every time I update the panel date range?

Ali

[DakotaKeyser]

I believe that when you run a percent change comparison, the percent change column is calculated based on the date that was applied to the column at the time the option was selected. This would cause the percent change value to remain static, even when applying a different time frame to the column.

As a workaround, I've created custom percent change metrics comparing this week visits to last week visits (daily average) and calculating the percent change for each metric needed. This allows the percent change to adjust according to the time frame selected.

[marianeg7719207]

OK thanks for your answer but how did you created custom percent change metrics ?

Other question : this solution is working for week, year, monthes but not working for custom dates ? ie : from the 1 to 12 of september versus 1 to 12 a year ago.

Thanks

[marion33678522]

Hello,

I got the same problem here,

I believe that @DakotaKeyser did this Using a Calculated metric and Time ranges. Just do :

(Time Range Today[metric y])/(Time Range Past Date[metric y])-1

with

• Time Range Today : a rolling time range over the number of days you wish : i.e, if you want the last 7 days (rolling daily ), or the results of past week (rolling weekly ).
• Time Range Past Date use a rolling time range on the same period last year.

This would make you make diferent Time ranges of the diferent periods ( week, monthly, etc...).

Hope this helps !

Cheers to the AAC !

[faith_tcs]

Are Time Ranges still supported today? I cannot find "Time Range" as an option in the calculated metric builder.

[jen_lasser · Accepted solution]

June 2023 update to the original response from 2018.

With the release of relative panel dates, date comparisons will now respect the panel date range if you select the option to "Make date range components relative to panel calendar". For example, if you have a month-over-month time comparison built into the panel and you adjust the calendar to a historical month like Feb 2023, the MoM time comparison will adjust to Jan 2023. Learn more: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/analyze/analysis-workspace/components/calendar-dat...

Original response:

Comparison date ranges are not static - they will roll over time as the calendar turns if you've selected things like "compare to prior month". For instance, when we move into June, any prior month comparisons will move to May. You can inspect the auto-created calculated metric "Percent Change" - it has date segments applied to it, and in those date segments you can see the rolling logic of the range.

However, the date comparisons will not change if the panel date range is manually changed. After initial creation, they are independent of the panel range selected and instead are based on today being today.

We will certainly consider allowing for the comparisons to be controlled by the panel calendar though. We appreciate this feedback!

[jh_1882]

Is this functionality working?  None of my tables with date comparisons are updating when the date range is changed

[jen_lasser]

Date ranges are available in the segment builder. You create the range there and then apply the segment in calculated metrics. Hope that helps!

[jkunz]

I've had very similar problems, even with rolling date ranges. I detailed some example problems at Workspace "Compare" columns with more flexibility ...

[thomas30900]

3) I replace the date range above Visits with a pre-built custom date range but the Percent Change no longer reflects the numbers I'm comparing. Why?

It's a bug from the tool as i noticed also that you can't change your metric, if you replace your "Visits" by "Page Views", % change won't change neither.

[alantry]

I've been running into the same issues, my % change calculated metrics are locked/static and dependent upon the fixed date ranges I have in my panels and tables. Any chance something like this is being worked on? This way the date range comparisons would be variable, so the metrics % changes would update alongside whichever date ranges you choose to compare.
This would allow adobe analytics users to share reports more broadly with users who may not be as familiar with the platform and the reports (giving users with view access of reports the ability to select date ranges and comparisons would have to be a part of this as well if that's possible).

[Biggsy50]

Hey @jen_lasser I too was having the issue when manually changing panel date ranges and the 'percent change' column was NOT working correctly.

I'd checked the 'Make date range components relative to panel calendar' box but the 'percent change' column wasn't updating correctly. This was happening when I manually changed the panel date range for ad-hoc requests.

After some testing I found that if I set up the panel using 'Last Month' and checked both boxes below the 'percent change' column update as expected. Also if I selected say June 1st - June 30th to start with, as long I checked BOTH boxes the 'percent change' column worked.

Only, when I chose June 1st - 30th when setting it up and did NOT check the bottom 'Use rolling dates' box did the 'percent change' box fail to update if I then manually selected March 2024 in the panel for ad-hoc reporting.

So in summary make sure you check BOTH boxes when setting up the panel

Thanks,
Steve Biggs