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Counter

Every Metric can be visualized as a counter. This is the simplest visualization, because it returns a single value summarizing the Metric over the requested time range. For example, a counter could represent

  • The sum of sales for the quarter,
  • A count of signups for the week, or
  • Error occurrences in the last hour.

Any time a single number will do, consider using a counter. For more complex visualizations that return multiple values, check out time series and leaderboard.

Usage​

When building customer-facing analytics, you could place a counter inline next to some text, as an icon at the start of a <button>, or you could make it extra-large in a dashboard, to grab the customer's attention:

371

An example of an extra-large counter you might present in a dashboard.

Arguments​

You will pass a CounterInput when querying the counter. The most important arguments are

  1. The timeRange to query over, and
  2. The filters to use.

Read more about CounterInput.

Returns​

The query returns a single value inside a CounterResponse. The value is a number wrapped in a string. Using a string ensures we can support values greater than 32-bits in the GraphQL API.

Read more about CounterResponse.

Example​

Imagine we have a Data Pool syncing from a table of sales data. The sales data might look like the following:

Timestamp
Salesperson
Product ID
Quantity

We can create a Sum Metric named "sales" which sums up the sales data. By including "Salesperson" and "Product ID" as Dimensions, we can answer questions with our Metric. Follow along for worked examples.

1. How many sales did a salesperson make?​

In order to answer the question, "How many sales did a salesperson make?", we need to query our Sum Metric and filter by the "Salesperson" Dimension. In the GraphQL query below, we use metricByName to get the "sales" Metric, and then we pass a variable, $salesperson, to the filter.

query CounterExample1 (
  $timeRange: RelativeTimeRange,
  $salesperson: String!
) {
  sales: metricByName (uniqueName: "sales") {
    counter ({
      timeRange: { relative: $timeRange }
      filters: [{
        column: "Salesperson"
        operator: EQUALS
        value: $salesperson
      }]
    }) {
      value
    }
  }
}

2. How many times did we sell a particular product?​

In order to answer the question, "How many times did we sell a particular product?", we need to query our Sum Metric and filter by the "Product ID" Dimension. In the GraphQL query below, we use metricByName to get the "sales" Metric, and then we pass a variable, $productId, to the filter.

query CounterExample2 (
  $timeRange: RelativeTimeRange,
  $productId: String!
) {
  sales: metricByName (uniqueName: "sales") {
    counter ({
      timeRange: { relative: $timeRange }
      filters: [{
        column: "Product ID"
        operator: EQUALS
        value: $productId
      }]
    }) {
      value
    }
  }
}