Mean and Mode Calculation in Report Studio or Analytics

[HelloCognos]

Hi, I'm back with more troubles  ;D ;D

Ok,

I have a total days in number showing for something that occurs between getting the car to the garage and fixing the car for several rows of data and now I have to present the Mean and Mode values for the specific year of data in a Crosstab.

Since Cognos doesn't have the Mean nor the Mode functions, does anyone has any suggestion/code to use for coming up with
these values in a Data Item or Calculation?

Thanks a lot for your time!!! :)

[HelloCognos]

Ok, sorry guys. I got the Mode but if you have any info on Mean calculation, please let me know.
Thanks a lot :) :)

[Cognos_Jan2017]

You have the Total Number of Days.

Write a Data Item to ...
Divide that value by the Total Number of Rows.

HTH, Bob

[HelloCognos]

Oh Ok, I guess it is the same as Average calculation right. Thanks

[Cognos_Jan2017]

Yes, Mean and Average are statistically the same thing.

[HelloCognos]

Thanks so much for your time. :) :)

[Cognos_Jan2017]

You are welcome, Bob

[dougp]

Yes, Mean and Average are statistically the same thing.

I think you mean that the mean is what the Average aggregation function in Cognos returns.  Technically...

In statistics, mean, median, and mode are all known as measures of central tendency, and in colloquial usage any of these might be called an average value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average

Wouldn't it be nice if reporting products like Cognos had aggregation functions with names like Mean, Median, and Mode?  It would be so much more clear.

[HelloCognos]

I'm not sure why were are going there to have more build in functions available. I have been asked to develop in MS BI and Tableau as well these days and both of these products comes with some good build in options such as all the arithmetic and statistical option as well as Quarter to Date, Year to Date, etc that in Cognos I have to add the code to a data item or calculations.

We really need to go there!!

Thanks

[Lynn]

Wouldn't it be nice if reporting products like Cognos had aggregation functions with names like Mean, Median, and Mode?  It would be so much more clear.

There is a median function in Cognos named median.

Unlike an arithmetic mean or media, mode can return more than one value and is, therefore, not a scalar function which an aggregation function really needs to be by definition.

I've not had any experience of users struggling with the use of average vs. mean. Quite honestly (and sadly) I suspect the opposite would be true and some users would be more confused by the term mean rather than median.

I'm not sure why were are going there to have more build in functions available. I have been asked to develop in MS BI and Tableau as well these days and both of these products comes with some good build in options such as all the arithmetic and statistical option as well as Quarter to Date, Year to Date, etc that in Cognos I have to add the code to a data item or calculations.

We really need to go there!!

Thanks

There are numerous arithmetic functions in the functions tab under Summaries as well as under Common Functions. There are also a variety of statistical functions in a sub-folder under summaries. Additional vendor-specific functions may also be available in your data source. Which arithmetic or statistical functions do you think Cognos is missing? There is an RFE site where you can suggest enhancements.

If you are having to code relative time elements by hand in reports then the designers of your data sources have not done a good job creating your meta data layer. A good implementation of relational as well as OLAP-style sources would allow you to easily obtain Gregorian as well as fiscal calendar elements.

I think sometimes the pots and pans get the blame when perhaps the chef is at fault.

[HelloCognos]

Thank you for the information Lynn.