Forecasting features

Forecasting is started from an exploratory view.

When you can use forecasting in your view, a Forecast dialog box Forecast is available, where you can modify model and forecast settings, and confidence bounds.

Forecasting requires the time dimension to be placed on the column. The algorithm requires the time dimension members to be organized in order of increasing time, where each member of a level represents a consistent unit of time. Members within the dimension definition that do not conform to this requirement, for example calculated year-to-date member, can be hidden. Relevant time periods can be chosen to be ignored, resulting in a linear interpolation of values to be predicted from. Forecasting also supports hierarchical time dimensions and nested dimensions as time: year, quarter, and month dimensions. Crosstabs views with dimensions that do not represent time on the column, can be forecasted, but the process might fail or the results might be unreliable.

Note: When the members of the dimensions, used to indicate the time (columns), have multiple parents, then the forecasting fails. With multiple parents, the correct order of those members is not known. To solve this limitation, create an alternative hierarchy for the dimensions that exclude the extra parents.

The following example shows forecasting values and confidence bounds in a line visualization.

Forecasting values and confidence bounds in a visualization