Model Hierarchies

End users often want "hierarchies" or predefined "drill paths" built into their models to make data navigation and discovery easier.

Hierarchies can be structured in ad-hoc ways based on business logic, or they can be designed to deconstruct data in intuitive trees. For example time year > quarter > month > date or geography country > state > county > zip code.

The hierarchy stage in the modeling process involves modelers building the tree definitions using the interface described below.

• There is no limit on the number of hierarchy trees in a model.
• Each hierarchy tree can only be made up of the columns or attributes in a single table at a time.
• There is no required order for the columns in the tree structure.
• Hierarchies can use both visible and invisible columns in a model
• Each hierarchy must have a unique name

NOTE: The time intelligence option from the column stage will automatically create 2 hierarchies for you. You can elect to edit these or remove them.

Using the Hierarchy Builder

The builder displays three sections:

• On the left, select the data set or table from the drop-down menu (yellow highlight)
• Once you click on the data set, its child columns will be listed below (green highlight).
  • Visible columns will appear with an orange icon
  • Invisible columns will appear with a gray icon.
• Select different columns from this panel and add them into the center section using the arrows (blue highlight).
  • To multi-select use Ctrl+click. The order of the clicking, will determine its order in the hierarchy tree.
  • You can change the order of the columns using the up/down buttons (black highlight)
• Provide the new hierarchy with an unique name (purple arrow).
  • The name can match the name of the data set / table. If set as such, it will be used as the default hierarchy for the table (or dimension).
• Click the + icon to add to the new “User Hierarchy” to the existing collection on the right-hand side of the builder.
• Once added, the hierarchy (yellow neon highlight) can be edited or deleted using the action buttons (purple highlight)