Grouping Component

Function

Determines the fields to group by in a query or chart that uses a record type as the source. The grouping should incorporate a record field or a related record field, an alias, and an optional interval to group by a date.

This configuration is used when a record type is defined as the data source for a chart or when using a!queryRecordType(). This function can be used as a primary grouping or secondary grouping in a bar, column, line, or pie chart or to define the fields in a query using a!aggregationFields().

See also:

• Chart Configuration Using Records

Parameters

Name	Keyword	Types	Description
Field	field	Any Type	The record field or related record field to group by. Use the recordType! domain to reference the field. For example, recordType!Case.fields.status.
Interval	interval	Text	The date or time interval to group by. This parameter can only be used when the field is of type Date, Date and Time, or Time. Valid values: "AUTO" (default), "YEAR", "MONTH_OF_YEAR", "MONTH_OF_YEAR_SHORT_TEXT", "MONTH_OF_YEAR_TEXT", "MONTH_TEXT", "MONTH_SHORT_TEXT", "MONTH_DATE", "DATE", "DATE_SHORT_TEXT", "DATE_TEXT", "DAY_OF_MONTH", "HOUR_OF_DAY", "HOUR", "MINUTE_OF_HOUR", "MINUTE".
Alias	alias	Text	The short name by which the result of the grouping field can be referenced in other places in the chart configuration or a!queryRecordType().
Format Value	formatValue	Any Type	Display value for the given grouping value. Only applies when the grouping is used in a chart. This parameter is evaluated once for each value returned. You can reference the unformatted result from the data source using fv!value. This display value does not affect the values used in calculations for the chart; it is only used for display.

Usage considerations

Using the interval parameter

The interval parameter determines how to group data for fields of type Date, Date and Time, or Time. Each interval can combine data from multiple dates for easy reporting.

For example, suppose you have three records with the following values for the startDate field: March 17, 2021, March 28, 2021, and April 3, 2021. If you use the MONTH_TEXT interval, it will group the data together and return the values as March 2021 and April 2021.

By default, the AUTO interval is selected. This interval does not perform any additional grouping, so the original values will be returned.

See the table below for the results using each interval:

Grouping Interval	Valid Data Types	Return Type	Localized Date Format?	Time zone offset?	Sample Value	Sample Result
AUTO	Any Type	Any Type	No	Yes	10/17/2021 3:45:12 PM	10/17/2021 3:45:12 PM
YEAR	Date and Time; Date	Integer	No	No	10/17/2021	2021
MONTH_OF_YEAR	Date and Time; Date	Integer	No	No	10/17/2021	10
MONTH_OF_YEAR_SHORT_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021	Oct
MONTH_OF_YEAR_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021	October
MONTH_DATE	Date and Time; Date	Date	No	No	10/17/2021	10/1/2021
MONTH_SHORT_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021	Oct 2021
MONTH_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021	October 2021
DATE	Date and Time; Date	Date	No	Yes	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	10/17/2021
DATE_SHORT_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	Oct 17, 2021
DATE_TEXT	Date and Time; Date	Text	Yes	No	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	October 17, 2021
DAY_OF_MONTH	Date and Time; Date	Integer	No	No	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	17
HOUR_OF_DAY	Date and Time; Time	Integer	No	No	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	15
HOUR	Date and Time	Date and Time	No	No	10/17/2021 3:45 PM	10/17/2021 3:00 PM
MINUTE_OF_HOUR	Date and Time; Time	Integer	No	No	10/17/2021 3:45:12 PM	45
MINUTE	Date and Time	Date and Time	No	No	10/17/2021 3:45:12 PM	10/17/2021 3:45:00 PM

Localized date formats

If the interval returns a value of type Text, the values will display in localized date formats.

For example, the MONTH_OF_YEAR_TEXT interval returns the text value of the month. Depending on the locale of the user who runs the query, the text values for the month may differ. For example, if a user's locale is set to Spanish, the results would return values like enero, marzo, agosto. If a user's locale is set to English, the results would instead return values like February, March, April.

Alternatively, the MONTH_OF_YEAR interval returns the month number, a value 1-12, so it will be the same value across all locales.

If you need to ensure the values are the same across all locales (for example, to use the result in a filter), use one of the intervals that does not localize date formats.

Time zone offset

By default, every query is aggregated in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and returned in your local time zone. However, if the interval returns Date or Date and Time, the values will be aggregated in GMT and then offset to the user's selected time zone. This may result in groupings that don't accurately represent when something occurred.

For example, let's say your local time is in Australia and you create a chart showing the number of orders created each day. If you use the DATE interval (which returns values of type Date), the data will be aggregated in GMT and then offset to the local Australian time. Since Australia is 10 hours ahead of GMT, it may appear like orders are being created the next day.

When selecting an interval, consider whether intervals with a time zone offset are appropriate for your use case.

Using the field and alias parameters

The field is a required parameter. It must reference a record field or a related record field from the record type specified in the query or chart.

When using a!grouping() in a query, an alias is required. This is a short name that is used to reference the grouping field in other places in the configuration. The alias must be used as the field in the sort parameter within the parent configuration function (like a!queryRecordType() or in a component function like a!barChartField()).

Formatting values

When using formatValue parameter, the expression provided will execute for each unique value returned for the grouping.

Learn more about formatting date fields and formatting text and number fields in a chart.

Grouping in charts

For all charts, except pie charts and scatter charts, you can add a Primary and Secondary Grouping if there is only one Measure provided. See Chart Configuration Using Records for more information on how to add groupings to charts.

When the interval parameter is set to any value other than "AUTO", you can show time intervals with no data on the axis of your charts using the showIntervalsWithNoData parameter.

Feature compatibility

The table below lists this component's compatibility with various features in Appian.

Feature	Compatibility	Note
Portals	Compatible
Offline Mobile	Incompatible
Sync-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible
Real-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible	Custom record fields that evaluate in real time must be configured using one or more Custom Field functions.
Process Reports	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process report.
Process Events	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process event node, such as a start event or timer event.

Related Patterns

The following patterns include usage of the Grouping Component.

• Aggregate Data and Conditionally Display in a Chart or Grid (Reports, Charts, Query Data, Grids, Records): Aggregate data and conditionally display it in a pie chart or grid. In this pattern, we will calculate the total number of employees in each department and display it in a pie chart and a read-only grid. Then, we'll use a link field to conditionally display each component.

• Aggregate Data and Display in a Chart (Reports, Charts, Query Data, Records): Aggregate data, specifically the total number of employees in a given department, to display in a pie chart.

• Aggregate Data by Multiple Fields and Display in a Chart (Reports, Charts, Query Data, Records): Aggregate data by multiple fields and display it in a stacked column chart. In this pattern, we will calculate the total number of employees for each title in each department and display it in a stacked column chart.

• Aggregate Data on a Date or Date and Time Field (Reports, Query Data, Grids, Records): Aggregate data, specifically the total number of employees by date.

• Aggregate Data using a Filter and Display in a Chart (Reports, Charts, Query Data, Filtering, Records): Aggregate data, specifically the total number of employees for each title in the Engineering department, to display in a bar chart.

• Configure a Chart Drilldown to a Grid (Charts, Grids, Query Data, Records): Displays a column chart with aggregate data from a record type and conditionally shows a grid with filtered records when a user selects a column on the chart.

• Dynamically Show Sales by Product Category Compared to Total Sales (Records, Reports, Charts, Filtering): This pattern illustrates how to create an area chart that dynamically displays sales generated by product category compared to total sales.

• Filter the Data in a Grid Using a Chart (Charts, Grids, Filtering, Records): Display an interactive pie chart with selectable sections so that a user may filter the results in a grid.

• Percentage of Online Sales (Records, Reports, Formatting): This pattern illustrates how to calculate the percent of sales generated from online orders and display it in a gauge component.

• Sales by Region (Records, Reports, Charts): This pattern illustrates how to create a bar chart that shows sales per sales region.

• Total Orders Compared to Orders Purchased with Promo Codes (Records, Reports, Charts): This pattern illustrates how to create a column chart that compares the number of total orders and the number of orders that had at least one item purchased with a promo code.

• Year-Over-Year Sales Growth (Records, Reports, Formatting): This pattern illustrates how to calculate year-over-year sales growth and display it in a KPI.

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