Sparse function in MDA for nulls

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!

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

For us, null would mean 0, rather than same as last week. Thanks for asking!

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

The fall release will have the ability to set nulls as zero via the rules engine. 🙂

Thanks Dan!  Will this also be the default behavior then of Reports?  (to treat nulls in the underlying data as zeros?)

Hi Leanne, there aren't going to be any changes to how Reports handles nulls (as there are some valid use cases for keeping nulls in reports as truly null and not set to 0). 

However, since many of the reports (especially on usage) are often driven from imported data tables, the new rules function to set nulls equal to zero will allow you to manage this on the data source side vs. the reporting side. 

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Real Date Axis in reports.

When running a report with a date field for the X-axis, the data needs to be properly spaced along the axis. A key benefit of that report is to let the distance between data points indicate elapsed time. But I'm seeing 4 days between dates look exactly like 40 days between dates.

There are times when the underlying data can be filled in so that the chart effectively looks "right" (i.e. put in a 0 value with the right attributes for the days with no value) but that doesn't always work.

I think I remember an earlier conversation about this topic, but I can't find it. Sorry if I'm duplicating -- if anyone knows of the other thread I'll move this there!

I almost think we might be conflating two different things here -- related but subtly different. (Or maybe I'm just rationalizing!)

The first is how a timeline axis should function. The confusion around this seems to come about because it's an X-axis instead of a Y-axis. If we plot "number of accounts by CSM" we expect the column for 10 to be twice the height of the one for 5 even if no CSM has 6, 7, 8, or 9 accounts. The distance between 5 and 10 is fixed and needs to be shown that way. In the same way, the distance between today and 10 days ago is fixed, even if nothing happened between them.

Once we've agreed that a timeline needs to be continuous there's a second question of how to show trended data (lines not columns) across those periods. But "filling with 0s" is a workaround for the continuity issue, rather than a response to how this data is plotted. If we resolve how data over time is plotted, then the question of whether or not you need to insert a value can be addressed based on the specific business need.

Lastly -- this isn't really a topic that needs much discussion or debate. The most common charting tools like Excel and Tableau have well-established patterns for how to display this data. If we were in alignment with those tools then any resolutions would sit 100% with the individual CS teams.

"The most common charting tools like Excel and Tableau have well-established patterns for how to display this data." Upvote particularly for this- I agree that Gainsight charts can be lacking some basic features (covered throughout the community) that involve exporting to excel if required to use for presentation.