.Stat Suite documentation

Frequency & Time-Period

Table of Content


Frequency and Time-Period selectors

Frequency & Time Period is a combined set of selectors in the visualisation page, enabling to filter a data view for time-period range in the context of a pre-selected frequency. Frequency is a single-selection dropdown, and Time Period is a range selector.
Most of the (standard SDMX) used frequencies are supported: Annual, biannual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, daily (business week), hourly. Minutely and secondly are nice to have options.

Selectors without a selection show 2 or 4 dashes (’–’ or ‘—-’), depending on their purpose.

Frequency

The frequencies returned in the Frequency dimension of a data view are displayed in the Frequency filter, and only the frequencies returned for the given data view are displayed in it.

If there is no Frequency dimension defined for the displayed data, then the Frequency filter isn’t displayed and the Time Period selector uses an annual time format. See here for how the Frequency dimension is recognised.

If the data has only one Frequency value, then the Frequency filter isn’t displayed, and the Frequency value is shown only in the data view table/chart header.
In any case, the Time Period range selector will dynamically update according to the Frequency selection.

frequency

The user cannot remove the Frequency value in the ‘Applied filters’. Thus there is no cross in the Frequency value.

Time Periods

The Time Period range selector layout is dynamic and updates according to the Frequency selection; only the necessary drop-down boxes with items corresponding to the selected Frequency are shown, e.g., when selecting a daily frequency, then the Time Period range selector displays appropriately filled dropdowns for the year, month and day.

time period

The boundaries applied in the Time Period filter are defined using the following rules in this order of increasing priority:

  • The start boundary and end boundary take the current year.
  • The start boundary and end boundary take the default boundaries defined in the DE config settings, if available.
  • The start boundary and end boundary take the data availability, if available.
  • The start boundary must always be smaller than or equal to the end boundary.

The initial selections applied in the Time Period filter are defined using the following rules in this order of increasing priority:

  • The start period and end period selections take the above boundaries settings.
  • The start period and end period selections take the related default selection defined in the DE config settings, if available and if within the final boundaries settings.
  • The last [..] period(s) selection take the related default selection defined in the DE config settings, if available, and the start period is auto-calculated accordingly (see here) and the end period is non-selected.
  • The start period and end period selections take the related DEFAULT annotation settings, if available and if within the boundaries settings.
  • The last [..] period(s) selection takes the related DEFAULT annotation settings, the start period is then auto-calculated accordingly (see Last [..] period(s)) and the end period is non-selected.
  • The start period and end period selections take the related current DE URLsettings, if available and if within the boundaries settings.
  • The last [..] period(s) selection takes the related current DE URL settings, the start period is then auto-calculated accordingly (see Last [..] period(s)) and the end period is non-selected.
  • If set, then the start period must always be smaller than or equal to the the end boundary and smaller than or equal to the end period, if that is also set.

If there is no Time dimension defined for the displayed data, then the Frequency and Time-Period filter is hidden. See here for how the Time dimension is recognised.

Introduced in July 8, 2021 Release .Stat Suite JS 9.0.0

The user can never select an end period that is before the start period, and vice-versa, a start period that is after the end period. This means that each dropdown box content takes into account the selection in the other dropdown.
Example: assuming that the start and end periods are open. When the user selects a start period then the dropdown content of the end period is automatically restricted to start only from the selected start period. Vice-versa, under the same assumption, when the user selects an end period, then the dropdown content of the start period is automatically restricted to end latest on the selected end period.
When a start or end period has no selection, then selecting the year will automatically select the most appropriate values for the other time period date parts like quarter, month or day. E.g., selecting a start year will automatically set the corresponding first available quarter, month or day (as appropriate), selecting a end year will automatically set the corresponding last available quarter, month or day (as appropriate).
The start and end periods can be deselected, in which case they will not be applied in the data request.

The green number of selected values/total of values is counting values for a given frequency. So for example, it will count the number of selected/total years when Yearly is selected, the number of selected/total months when Monthly is selcted, etc…

number of values

Introduced in March 4, 2022 Release .Stat Suite JS 13.0.0

The Frequency & Time Period filter takes as title the concatenated, localised SDMX concept names of the Frequency and Time dimensions (glued with the ’ & ’ term), depending on the presence of those dimensions. Also see the paragraph about Hiding Frequency and Time Period filters.

overriden time period & frenquency names

See the documentation on how time and frequency dimensions are identified.

Introduced in July 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS Virtual

The Data Explorer proposes two alternative (mutually exclusive) options for retrieving the latest available data within other filter criteria, either with a generic time span of a fixed number of latest available time periods (Last [..] period(s)) or with a time-series-specific time span of a fixed number of latest available time periods (Last [..] time series value(s)). Both options share the same number edit box.

Last [..] period(s)

The shared edit box for Last [..] period(s) is displayed in the lower part of the Frequency & Time period filter. A mouse-over popup contains the localised text ‘Latest available [e.g., 5] time periods within the other filter criteria’.

Last [..] period(s)

If set, the time range returned by the SDMX web service with a dynamic data availability query is used to calculate the appropriate start period for the data request according to the selected number of time periods. The calculation respects the current frequency selection and is executed as follow:

  • X = selected last periods
  • A = dynamic data availability end period obtained without time period selection (or if that is not available then the actual data availability end period)
  • B = dynamic data availability start period obtained without time period selection (or if that is not available then the actual data availability start period)
  • If A-X+1 > B then start period submitted to SDMX_WS := A-X+1
    Else start period submitted to SDMX-WS := B
  • The SDMX-WS data request will not use an end period parameter

A generic default for this option for a given DE instance can be defined in the DE config settings.

A data-specific default for this option can be defined in the DEFAULT annotation settings.

The order of priority of these settings is explained in the paragrpah about Time Periods.

When entering a new value in the related edit box, then the Last [..] period(s) option is auto-selected. Vice-versa, when the user selects a new start or end period, then the value for the Last [..] period(s) is removed.

Last [..] time series value(s)

Pre-requisite: This feature is to be enabled per data space in the DE config settings, and must be supported by the related SDMX web service.

The shared edit box for Last [..] time series value(s) is displayed in the lower part of the Frequency & Time period filter. A mouse-over popup contains the localised text ‘Latest available [e.g., 5] values per time series within the other filter criteria’.

If set, the selected number of latest time series observations per time series will be returned for table and chart views of a given data view.

Last [..] time series value(s)

A data-specific default for this option can be defined in the DEFAULT annotation settings.


Hiding Frequency and Time Period filters

The feature was enhanced with October 5, 2021 Release .Stat Suite JS 10.0.0

The Frequency and Time-Period filters are hidden in two cases: if the dataflow doesn’t have a TIME_PERIOD time dimension, or if the dataflow has a NOT_DISPLAYED annotation containing the TIME_PERIOD time dimension.

Case 1: dataflow without TIME_PERIOD time dimension

If your dataflow doesn’t contain a TIME_PERIOD, then you won’t see the Frequency and Time-Period filter diplayed in the DE. This includes the frequency filter, the start/end date filter and the last N periods filter.

Dataflow without TIME_PERIOD

Case 2: dataflow with “NOT_DISPLAYED” annotation containing the TIME_PERIOD time dimension

You can decide to hide the Frequency and Time-Period filter even if your dataflow contains a TIME_PERIOD dimension.
To do so, you can define the SDMX annotation of type NOT_DISPLAYED (see specifications) to be used for hiding the filter.

NOT_DISPLAYED annotation

Hidden filters

Filters not hidden

Note:

If the NOT_DISPLAYED annotation contains the frequency dimension (FREQ or FREQUENCY) but does not contain the TIME_PERIOD time dimension: Only the frequency filter should be hidden. The start/end date filter and the last N periods filter should remain.


Data availability

See this page