Skip to main content

Temporal Decorators

Time-based calculations (YoY, MoM, etc.).

Overview​

Temporal decorators enable time-based comparisons like year-over-year (YoY), month-over-month (MoM), and other temporal calculations.

Available Decorators​

Year-over-Year (YoY)​

Compare to same period last year.

# Applied in query, not in model definition
# User selects "YoY" decorator in UI

Month-over-Month (MoM)​

Compare to previous month.

# Applied in query, not in model definition

Period-over-Period​

Compare to previous period (day, week, month, quarter, year).

How It Works​

Temporal decorators are applied at query time:

  1. User selects measure and temporal decorator
  2. Planner generates SQL with temporal calculation
  3. Returns comparison values

Use Cases​

Revenue Growth​

# Measure definition
- type: measure
  name: Total Revenue
  data_type: decimal
  expression:
    sql: sum(amount)

# User applies "YoY" decorator in query
# Returns: Current year revenue vs. last year revenue

Month-over-Month Growth​

# User applies "MoM" decorator
# Returns: Current month vs. previous month

Best Practices​

  1. Use with date dimensions - Temporal decorators require date dimensions
  2. Document measures - Help users understand what can be compared
  3. Test calculations - Verify temporal comparisons work correctly

Next Steps​