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Modeling Time Series Data

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Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Describe the use of time comparisons for business analysis

Implement time comparison measures in the business model using the time series functions

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Time Comparisons

Provide the ability to compare business performance with prior

time periods.

Sales This Year Sales Last Year

How do they

compare?

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Business Challenge: Time Comparisons

There is no direct way in SQL to make time comparisons.

What was this

years sales?

What was last

years sales?

How do they compare?

Query 1:

Query 2:

Query 3:

Requires three different

queries to get the result

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Oracle BI Solution: Model Time Comparisons

Use the Oracle BI repository to model time series data.

User makes one request for

all three queries using time

comparison measures.

What was this

years sales?

What was last

years sales?

How do they compare?

Query 1:

Query 2:

Query 3:

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Oracle BI Solution: Time Series Functions

Oracle BI Server provides Ago and ToDate functions for time

series comparisons:

Ago function

Calculates aggregated value as of some time period shifted from the current time

ToDate function

Aggregates a measure attribute from the beginning of a specified time period to the currently displayed time

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ABC Example

ABC wants to implement new measures in the business model

to compare dollar performance this month to performance a

month ago.

Show dollars a month ago.

Show change in dollars.

Show change as percentage.

Show change to date.

It was a

change of 9%.

In February, dollars increased

compared to the previous month.

Change to

date

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Steps to Model Time Series Data

1. Identify time dimension and chronological keys.

2. Create the Ago measure.

3. Use existing columns to create additional Ago measures.

4. Create the ToDate measure.

5. Add new measures to the Presentation layer.

6. Test the results in Answers.

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1. Identify Time Dimension and

Chronological Keys

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2. Create the Ago Measure

Use the Expression Builder to build the Ago function with the

form Ago(,,).

Time series

functions

Time

dimensions

Ago function

formula

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3. Use Existing Columns to Create

Additional Ago Measures

Use the existing Ago measure to build Change and Percent

Change measures.

Change

Month Ago

Dollars

Percent Change

Month Ago

Dollars

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4. Create the ToDate Measure

Use the Expression Builder to build the ToDate function with

the form ToDate(,).

Time series

functions

Time

dimensions

ToDate

formula

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5. Add New Measures to the Presentation Layer

Add new time series measures to the Presentation layer so that

users can include them in query criteria.

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6. Test the Results in Answers

Create requests in Answers and verify the results.

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Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

Describe the use of time comparisons for business analysis

Implement time comparison measures in the business model using the time series functions

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Practice 12-1 Overview:

Creating Time Series Comparison Measures

This practice covers using Oracle BI Ago and ToDate functions

to build time series comparison measures.