A metric is a value that describes or summarizes features from a collection of data points. For example: count of total number of user IDs, or sum of revenue.In Lightdash, metrics are used to summarize dimensions or, sometimes, other metrics.
To add a metric to Lightdash using the meta tag, you define it in your dbt project under the dimension name you’re trying to describe/summarize.
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: orders_model columns: - name: user_id # dimension your metric is aggregating meta: metrics: distinct_user_ids: # name of your metric type: count_distinct # metric type - name: revenue # dimension your metric is aggregating meta: metrics: sum_revenue: # name of your metric type: sum # metric type
Sometimes a metric references multiple columns, in these cases you can define the metric at the model level:
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: orders_model meta: metrics: revenue_per_user: type: number sql: ${sum_revenue} / ${distinct_user_ids} sum_total_paid: type: sum sql: ${revenue} + ${taxes_paid}
Non-aggregate metrics (number, boolean, etc.) can only reference other metrics in sql: since they are inserted directly into the generated SQL query without being wrapped in an aggregate function.Aggregate metrics (sum, count_distinct, etc.) can only reference dimensions since they are wrapped in an aggregate function before being added to the generated SQL query. Wrapping an aggreate function in another aggregate function will cause an error.
Read on to learn more about aggregate vs non-aggregate metrics!
Each metric type falls into one of these categories. The metric categories tell you whether the metric type is an aggregation and what type of fields the metric can reference:
Aggregate metric types perform (surprise, surprise) aggregations. Sums and averages are examples of aggregate metrics: they are measurements summarizing a collection of data points.Aggregate metrics can only reference dimensions, not other metrics.
Non-aggregate metrics are metric types that, you guessed it, do not perform aggregations.Numbers and booleans are examples of non-aggregate metrics. These metric types perform a calculation on a single data point, so they can only reference aggregate metrics. They cannot reference dimensions.
You can customize your metrics in your dbt model’s YAML file. Here’s an example of the properties used in defining a metric:
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: sales_stats meta: joins: - join: web_sessions sql_on: ${web_sessions.date} = ${sales_stats.date} group_details: product_details: label: Product Details description: 'Fields that have information about the products in the basket.' item_details: label: Item Details description: 'Fields that have information about the items in the basket.' columns: - name: revenue description: 'Total estimated revenue in GBP based on forecasting done by the finance team.' meta: metrics: total_revenue: label: 'Total revenue GBP' type: SUM description: 'Total revenue in GBP' sql: 'IF(${revenue} IS NULL, 10, ${revenue})' groups: ['product_details', 'item_details'] # this would add the metric to a nested group: `product details` --> `item details` hidden: false format: '[$£]#,##0.00' # GBP rounded to two decimal points show_underlying_values: - revenue - forecast_date - web_sessions.session_id # field from joined table filters: - is_adjusted: true
Here are all of the properties you can customize:
Property
Required
Value
Description
label
No
string
Custom label. This is what you’ll see in Lightdash instead of the metric name.
This option will compact the number value (e.g. 1,500 to 1.50K). Currently supports one of the following: [‘thousands’, ‘millions’, ‘billions’, ‘trillions’, ‘kilobytes’, ‘megabytes’, ‘gigabytes’, ‘terabytes’, ‘petabytes’, ‘kibibytes’, ‘mebibytes’, ‘gibibytes’, ‘tebibytes’, ‘pebibytes’]
This option will format the output value on the results table and CSV export. Supports spreadsheet-style formatting (e.g. #,##0.00). Use this website to help build your custom format.
Adding urls to a metric allows your users to click metric values in the UI and take actions, like opening an external tool with a url, or open at a website. You can use liquid templates to customise the link based on the value of the dimension.
You can limit which dimensions are shown for a field when a user clicks View underlying data. The list must only include dimension names from the base model or from any joined models.
Takes the percentile of the values in the given field. Like SQL’s PERCENTILE_CONT function.The percentile metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric table column.For example, this creates a metric median_price by taking the 50% percentile of the item_price dimension:
Takes the 50th percentile of the values in the given field. Like SQL’s PERCENTILE_CONT(0.5) function.The median metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric table column.For example, this creates a metric median_price by taking the 50% percentile of the item_price dimension:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: item_price meta: metrics: median_price: type: median
Takes the average (mean) of the values in the given field. Like SQL’s AVG function.The average metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric table column.For example, this creates a metric avg_price by taking the average of the item_price dimension:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: item_price meta: metrics: avg_price: type: average
Tells you whether something is True or False.The boolean metric can be used on any valid SQL expression that gives you a TRUE or FALSE value. It can only be used on aggregations, which means either aggregate metrics orcustom SQL that references other metrics. You cannot build a boolean metric by referencing other unaggregated dimensions from your model.boolean metrics don’t do any aggregations; they just reference other aggregations.For example, the avg_price metric below is an average of all of the item_price values in our product table. A second metric called is_avg_price_above_20 is a boolean type metric. The is_avg_price_above_20 metric has a custom SQL expression that tells us whether the avg_price value is greater than 20.
Does a table count, like SQL’s COUNT function.The count metric can be used on any dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a set of values.For example, this creates a metric number_of_users by counting the number of user_id values in the table:
Counts the number of distinct values in a given field. It’s like SQL’s COUNT DISTINCT function.The count_distinct metric can be used on any dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a set of values.For example, this creates a metric number_of_unique_users by counting the number of unique user_id values in the table:
Gives you a date value from an expression.The date metric can be used on any valid SQL expression that gives you a date value. It can only be used on aggregations, which means either aggregate metrics orcustom SQL that references other metrics. You cannot build a date metric by referencing other unaggregated dimensions from your model.Creating a max or min date metric with type: dateIf you want to create a metric of a maximum or minimum date, you can’t use type: max or of type: min metrics because these are only compatible with numeric type fields. Instead, you can calculate a maximum or minimum date by defining a metric of type: date and using some custom sql, like this:
Copy
Ask AI
- name: created_at_date meta: dimension: type: date metrics: max_created_at_date: type: date sql: MAX(${TABLE}.created_at_date)
Max gives you the largest value in a given numeric field. It’s like SQL’s MAX function.The max metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric value.Because type: max metrics only work with numerical fields, you can’t use them to find a maximum date. Instead, you can use the MAX() function in the sql parameter of a metric of type: date to get a maximum date (you can see an example of this in the date section.For example, this creates a metric max_delivery_cost by looking at the delivery_cost dimension and taking the largest value it finds:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: delivery_cost meta: metrics: max_delivery_cost: type: max
Min gives you the smallest value in a given numeric field. It’s like SQL’s MIN function.The min metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric value.Because type: min metrics only work with numerical fields, you can’t use them to find a minimum date. Instead, you can use the MIN() function in the sql parameter of a metric of type: date to get a minimum date (you can see an example of this in the date section.For example, this creates a metric min_delivery_cost by looking at the delivery_cost dimension and taking the smallest value it finds:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: delivery_cost meta: metrics: min_delivery_cost: type: min
Used with numbers or integers. A number metric doesn’t perform any aggregation but can be used to perform simple transformations on other metrics.The number metric can be used on any valid SQL expression that gives you a numeric or integer value. It can only be used on aggregations, which means either aggregate metrics orcustom SQL that references other metrics. You cannot build a number metric by referencing other unaggregated dimensions from your model.For example, this creates a metric called total_gross_profit_margin_percentage based on the total_sale_price and total_gross_profit_margin aggregate metrics:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: sale_price meta: metrics: total_sale_price: type: sum - name: gross_profit_margin meta: metrics: total_gross_profit_margin: type: sum total_gross_profit_margin_percentage: type: number sql: '(${total_gross_profit_margin}/ NULLIF(${total_sale_price},0))'
The example above also uses the NULLIF() SQL function to avoid division-by-zero errors.
Adds up the values in a given field. Like SQL’s SUM function.The sum metric can be used on any numeric dimension or, for custom SQL, any valid SQL expression that gives a numeric table column.For example, this creates a metric total_revenue by adding up the values in the revenue dimension:
Copy
Ask AI
columns: - name: revenue meta: metrics: total_revenue: type: sum
Used with fields that include letters or special characters.The string metric can be used on any valid SQL expression that gives you a string value. It can only be used on aggregations, which means either aggregate metrics orcustom SQL that references other metrics. You cannot build a string metric by referencing other unaggregated dimensions from your model.string metrics are rarely used because most SQL aggregate functions don’t return strings. One common exception is MySQL’s GROUP_CONCAT function.For example, this creates a metric product_name_group by combining the unique values of a dimension called product_name:
We add default descriptions to all of the metrics you include in your model. But, you can override these using the description parameter when you define your metric.
Copy
Ask AI
metrics: num_user_ids: type: count description: 'Total number of user IDs. NOTE: this is NOT counting unique user IDs'
You can use the format parameter to have your metrics show in a particular format in Lightdash. Lightdash supports spreadsheet-style format expressions for all metric types.To help you build your format expression, we recommend using https://customformats.com/.
Copy
Ask AI
metrics: total_us_revenue: type: sum description: 'Total revenue in USD, with two decimal places, compacted to thousands' format: '$#,##0.00," K"' # 505,430 will appear as '$505.43 K' percent_of_total_global_revenue: type: number description: 'Percent of total global revenue coming from US revenue.' sql: ${total_us_revenue} / ${total_global_revenue} format: '0.00%' # 0.67895243 will appear as '67.89%
Spreadsheet-style format expressions are the recommended way of adding formatting to your metrics in Lightdash. There are legacy formatting options, listed below, which are less flexible than the spreadsheet-style formatting.
If you use both legacy and spreadsheet-style formatting options for a single metric, Lightdash will ignore the legacy format and round options and only apply the spreadsheet-style formatting expression.
You can compact values in your YAML. For example, if I wanted all of my revenue values to be shown in thousands (e.g. 1,500 appears as 1.50K), then I would write something like this in my .yml:
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: sales columns: - name: revenue meta: dimension: compact: thousands # You can also use 'K'
You can include custom SQL in your metric definition to build more advanced metrics using the sql parameter. Inside the sql parameter, you can reference any other dimension from the given model and any joined models. You can’t reference other metrics.You can reference dimensions from the same model like this: sql: "${dimension_in_this_model}"Or from joined models like this: sql: "${other_model.dimension_in_other_model}"
In non-aggregate metrics, you can reference any other metric from the given model and any joined models. You can’t reference other dimensions.You can reference metrics from the same model like this: sql: "${metric_in_this_model}"Or from joined models like this: sql: "${other_model.metric_in_other_model}"
By default, we show all of the dimensions from the Table when you click View underlying data. If you have fields from a joined table included in your results table, then we’ll also show you all of the fields from the joined Table.
You can limit which dimensions are shown for a field when a user clicks View underlying data by adding the list of dimensions to your .yml files:
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: sales_stats meta: joins: - join: web_sessions sql_on: ${web_sessions.date} = ${sales_stats.date} columns: - name: user_id description: 'Unique ID for users.' meta: dimension: type: string metrics: count_users: type: count_distinct show_underlying_values: - revenue_gbp_total_est - actual_date - web_sessions.session_id # field from joined table
The list of fields must be made of dimension names (no metrics) from the base table or from any joined tables. To reference a field from a joined table, you just need to prefix the dimension name with the joined table name, like this: my_joined_table_name.my_dimension.The order that the fields are listed in show_underlying_values is the order that they’ll appear in on the view underlying data table.
You can group your dimensions and metrics in the sidebar using the groups parameter.To do this, you need to set up group_details in the model’s configuration. Then, you can use these groups to organize metrics and dimensions. You can create nested groups up to 2 levels.
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: baskets meta: group_details: product_details: label: Product Details description: 'Fields that have information about the products in the basket.' item_details: label: Item Details description: 'Fields that have information about the items in the basket.' columns: - name: basket_item_id description: 'ID for the product item within the basket.' meta: dimension: groups: ['product_details', 'item_details'] # this would add the dimension to a nested group: `product details` --> `item details` metrics: count_total_basket_items: type: count_distinct groups: ['product_details', 'item_details'] # this would add the metric to a nested group: `product details` --> `item details` - name: product_name description: 'Full name of the product.' meta: dimension: label: 'Product name' groups: ['product_details'] # this would add the dimension under the group label: `product_details` metrics: count_total_product_types: type: count_distinct groups: ['product_details'] # this would add the metric under the group label: `product_details`
Filters are applied to metrics any time that metric is used in Lightdash. Filters can only be used with aggregate metric types.For example, we could add a filter to our users count to make sure it didn’t include user IDs with closed accounts, like this:
These filters do not appear in the Filters tab in the Explore view, instead, they are applied automatically in the SQL query that fetches your results. That means filters added using the filter parameter can’t be removed in the UI and won’t be visible to users unless they look at the SQL query.
For date filtering, use inThePast or inTheNext followed by a number and time unit (days, months, or years). These keywords are case sensitive and must be written exactly as shown.
To use special characters such as %!_> in your filter value you can either put the value in quotes, or escape special characters with a backslash \. For example, if you wanted to filter for subscription status of is_subscribed you can write the metric in one of these ways:
To filter a field using a list of values you can supply them as an array for that field. For example, if you wanted to filter for orders with order status completed or shipped you should write the metric like:
Metric filters cannot be used with non-aggregate metrics
You can’t use filters with non-aggregate metric types. Instead, if your non-aggregate metrics are referencing aggregate metric types, you need to apply metric filters to the aggregate metrics.Here’s an example: imagine you wanted to calculate the average cost per item that had the status shipped. You would need to do something like this in your .yml:
Copy
Ask AI
models: - name: orders meta: metrics: average_cost_per_item_shipped: type: number sql: ${total_cost_of_shipped} / ${count_unique_items_shipped} columns: - name: item_id description: 'Unique ID for items ordered.' meta: dimension: type: string metrics: count_unique_items: type: count_distinct count_unique_items_shipped: type: count_distinct filters: - status: 'shipped' - name: item_cost description: 'Cost for each item ordered.' meta: dimension: type: number metrics: total_cost: type: sum total_cost_of_shipped: type: sum filters: - status: 'shipped'