Setting up data type groups

A data type group is a collection of data types that share a common reporting measure. Data groups are primarily used to create ratios, but are also used in custom reports.

About this task

You can group data types with different units of measure, for example, kg, and tonnes. The system normalizes the data from the data types to the common reporting measure that you choose for the group.
Note:
  • You must be a system administrator to create a data type group.
  • You must ensure that the reporting measure that you choose is applicable to all of the members of the group.
  • You can set up data type groups for secondary measures for a specific reporting need, such as for producing social metrics. Select Native units as the Reporting measure and select from the available measures. No unit conversion is applied to secondary measures. Instead, the raw values are summed if more than one of them are included in the same data type group.
Data type groups and ratios are included in the standard Power BI monthly dataset.

Procedure

  1. From the main menu, click Admin > Set Data Type Groups.
  2. Assign a name.
  3. Optional: Assign a caption.
    If a caption is set, it is used instead of the name.
  4. Select the unit of measure that all members of the data type are normalized to.
    For example, you might select emissions, energy, mass, volumes, and cost. A data type group can contain members with different units of measure , for example, kg, lbs, tonnes, but as long as they are of the same type the system normalizes the data to the selected reporting measure.
  5. Select measures.
    You are not prevented from choosing measures that do not belong together so take care to choose like measures that can convert to your chosen reporting measure. Only data types that belong to existing accounts are available. If the data type is not listed, create at least one account of the data type (account style) first.
  6. Click Save.

Results

The data type group is available for use in the platform where supported, such as when creating ratios.

What to do next

To review the members of the data type group, select the group in the Data Type Groups grid and click Preview. The list of data types are displayed in the Preview panel. To remove a data type from the group, click the trash icon.