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leanne
leanne
Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 28, 2016

Sparse function in MDA for nulls

  • June 28, 2016
  • 14 replies
  • 93 views
We're running into an issue with reports of usage data, where if there is no data for a given customer for a week, that week is just skipped in the report, condensing the X axis and making trend lines inaccurate.  In order to remedy this, we're starting to write 0s into the MDA for any data points that are null, which exponentially increases the amount of data we're writing.  It would be nice to have a "sparse" function that treats nulls as 0s for reporting purposes.

      14 replies

      sdrostgainsightcom
      sdrostgainsightcom
      Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
      June 28, 2016
      Yes - this may be in the queue already, but I'll let someone from product answer.  Either way, I've had additional customer requests for treating a timeline x-axis as unbroken, whether or not there's data for the given month or week - it's got my vote!
      Scott Drost, Gainsight -- Principal Customer Success Architect
        gaurav_kotak
        gaurav_kotak
        Expert ⭐️
        June 28, 2016
        This is something we are working on. Quick question. It it's null, does it mean value is 0 or does it mean value is same as last week? or does it depend. If depends, then on what? thx
        leanne
        leanneAuthor
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        June 28, 2016
        For us, null would mean 0, rather than same as last week. Thanks for asking!
          sdrostgainsightcom
          sdrostgainsightcom
          Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
          June 29, 2016
          In all cases I've dealt with, customers want the null on a line graph to drop to the x-axis for that week, or whatever the timeline is. So yes, treat it as a zero would be my vote from the onboarding side.

          Haven't seen a use case for assuming a null would be same as the previous week - always means either no occurrences (if aggregating records - so a zero) or missing data (in which case they don't want to mask it by carrying the previous week's data along).
          Scott Drost, Gainsight -- Principal Customer Success Architect
            dan_ahrens
            dan_ahrens
            Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
            June 29, 2016
            Another +1 vote from me to show null as a value of 0. 

            Here is an example of how two charts that represent two sides of the same coin (risks and opportunities) over time can get out of alignment if nulls are not treated as zero (and given space on the timeline for that zero). 

            The arrows show where the events from the lower timeline appear on the upper timeline. For the most current 3 weeks the correlation is perfect, but then things get skewed with missing dates.

            VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
              leanne
              leanneAuthor
              Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
              June 29, 2016
              Also related, and want to make sure is also included, in the Usage table on the c360, we don't get the x-axis skipping and compression, but we do get holes in the trend line.  I'd also want these to show zeros rather than holes.  Here's a screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/b48pb4cCHG
                cristina_postolache
                cristina_postolache
                Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
                September 16, 2016
                I've tried to fix this using the documentation Gainsight recommended, but it's too complex, and I've overwritten data by mistake. So I would love to fill those gaps with no values too.
                leanne
                leanneAuthor
                Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
                November 9, 2017
                Any update on timeframe for getting this?  We're starting to get warnings about the amount of data we're uploading into Gainsight, and I think the fact that we're writing zeros to any "blank" records is a big part of that. I'd love to be able to reduce our data usage by eliminating the need for that.
                dan_ahrens
                dan_ahrens
                Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
                November 9, 2017
                The fall release will have the ability to set nulls as zero via the rules engine. 🙂
                VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
                  leanne
                  leanneAuthor
                  Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
                  November 9, 2017
                  Thanks Dan!  Will this also be the default behavior then of Reports?  (to treat nulls in the underlying data as zeros?)
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