topic Re: Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart in SAS Visual Analytics

Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart

sc5 — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:18:41 GMT

Hi,

I have a bar chart of y vs x. The aggregation of the y variable is set as sum by default. I know I can change this in the data object, but is there a way to add a drop-down toggle for a report viewer to select whether they want to view the sum or average in a specific bar chart?

I assume we can do this with parameters, but I'm not sure how to set up the calculated field to make this work?

Thanks

Re: Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart

HunterT_SAS — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:02:21 GMT

This blog I think should help you out:
https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2016/04/27/use-parameters-to-pick-your-metric-in-visual-analytics-reports/

It was written several years ago but the same concepts apply to current versions of Visual Analytics.

One minor change to it I might recommend is instead of using the same datasource to create the custom category, I would use a completely separate dummy datasource. If you use the same datasource then there is a small risk of accidentally filtering report objects when you did not intend to.

Re: Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart

acordes — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:06:20 GMT

I agree with @HunterT_SAS

@sc5 Create a promoted table (and save to sashdat at the same location) and load into your report.

Use in this case the _ch_number variable for customized category.

Send some values to one category and name it 'Sum'.

Assign 'Mean' to the other one.

Use this customized category in a object like a button.

Assign a parameter to it.

For your target object create a variable like if parameter='Mean' then mean_variable, else sum_variable.

data casuser.dummy_for_va(promote=yes);
do _num=1 to 100;
_ch_number=put(_num, words100.);
output;
end;
run;

Re: Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart

sc5 — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:59:29 GMT

Thank you! I've got that, I just don't understand how to set up the actual y variable to be graphed? If I try creating a calculated field like "If parameter1 = "Average" then return avg(bygroup,yvar) else return sum(bygroup,yvar) it doesn't let me, it just underlines the "if" in red and doesn't let me create the field.

Re: Toggle between sum and average in a VA bar chart

HunterT_SAS — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:23:28 GMT

What version of Visual Analytics are you using? The calculation you described should be fine but maybe it's just a syntax problem ('IF' vs 'If' for example).

For instance this one is fine for 2024.05:

If that's not it, can you share a screenshot of what you have?