For example, suppose that you are interested in where visitors are first entering your site. You can create a session that is called First Hit of Session, which is triggered in all sessions on the first hit. You can then associate the dimension URL (Normalized) with the event. You can now report the URL where the first hit of the session is triggered.

Depending on the site, however, this list of URLs can be too long to be useful. Using dimensional filtering, you can limit the report to display only the top 25 values. For various reasons, you might decide to filter the list of values in the URL (Normalized) dimension to a whitelist of accepted and useful URLs. In the Report Builder, you can filter the report to display only the top 25 values from the whitelist.

• You can also filter the configured dimension filter for URL (Normalized) to exclude values. For example, you can remove the constants such as others, limit, and null.
• Except for the Year dimension, calendar dimensions that cross years are sorted in order of the dimension values and do not reflect the differences in year. For example, if the Week dimension bridges 2011 and 2012, Week 1 of 2012 is listed in the report before Week 52 of 2011.
• In the definition of the dimension, some filtration and remapping of dimension values may already be specified in a whitelist or a blacklist. When data is detected, these modifications are completed before the data is available for reporting.

There are two filters available:

• Filter by Value: Based on dimension values that you select to include or exclude, the report display is filtered. By default, all values that are detected for the dimension are included in the displayed report. Since these dimensions do not have specific values, filtering on selected values for these dimensions is not permitted: Day, Day and Hour, Week Starting, Quarter Starting, and Start of Year.
• Top N: For the selected set of values, you can choose to filter them to display only the values that occur most frequently during the report period.
  Note: If this report is exported as a template, only whitelisted dimension values are included in the export, which keeps the export to a manageable size. Date dimensions do not contain whitelisted values.

  When the Top N option is selected, you are specifying the set of values that occur most frequently during the time period for display in the report.

  With Top N reporting, you focus on the most commonly occurring dimension data. When the filter is applied, the report is updated to display data for the top values by occurrence, up to the maximum number of occurrences that you specified. For example, if the URL (Normalized) dimension is filtered for the top 25 values, the report is updated to show data that occurs on the 25 most frequently visited URLs of your web application.

  For Top N reporting, you can choose to display up to the Top 1000 values.

  These limitations apply to Top N reporting:

  • Top N dimensional filtering can be applied to one dimension on the X-axis, Y-axis, or the Segment.
  • Top N filtering cannot be applied to calendar dimensions.
  • Top N filtering cannot be applied when a comparison period is applied to the report.
  • Top N filtering cannot be applied in a report that also uses one or more data functions.

  Depending on the type of dimension, some filtering options may not be available. The Day and Hour dimension or dimensions that return timestamp values cannot be filtered by values, since those values are not set.

1. To filter the report that is based on a dimension that you include, click the drop-down menu next to the included dimension and select Filter. When dimensions, such as date dimensions, are added yet cannot be filtered, the Filter option is not available.
2. In the Dimension Filter dialog, you can select either of the filtering modes.
3. Based on your selection, enter any additional configuration.
4. To apply changes to dimension filtering, click Apply. The report is automatically updated.

If your segment is defined by a set of whitelisted values, drill-down searches on those values is not permitted due to the complexity of the query logic.

For example, suppose that you are looking for an answer to the following question: "show me the products (Y-axis) by credit card (X-axis) for member types (Segments)." Suppose you want to examine what products the Gold and Silver members purchased by credit card. You do not necessarily care for breakdowns by individual member type; you want to only know the products that are purchased by Gold and Silver members collectively.

To complete this filtration, you add the Member Type dimension as the report segment. In the properties of the Member Type segment, add the values Gold and Silver to the whitelist.

To add a segment:

1. In the Report Builder, click Add Segment.
2. Select the name of the dimension, and click Select. The dimension is added as a segment to the report.
3. By default, the segment filters to include all values in the report. To select specific values on which to filter, click the drop-down menu next to the dimension name in the report. Select Filter
4. The report is filtered to display only the data that is applicable to the selected dimension values.

1. Configure the base date range.
2. Select Compare to Date Range.
3. Configure the compare range, which is highlighted in yellow.
   Note: When you compare more than a month of data, the following dimensions do not work in the comparison:

   • Day of Year
   • Month
   • Month Name
   • Quarter Starting
   • Week
   • Day and Hour and Hour of Day can show confusing or incomplete data if the volume of data that is retained for hourly data is less than the selected date range.

   Overlaps between the Focus range and Compare range are highlighted in green. The Compare range must be the same number of days in length as the Focus range.

When you set the date or compare range, it changes the display:

• If you include a compare range and also a time dimension as the x-axis, the range is limited to the focus range.
• For bar graphs, the compare range data is displayed in parallel to the focus range data. Remember that the displayed range is based on the range of the focus.
• These display effects do not apply to value list dimensions. Any values that is displayed in one range and not the other range are zero-filled.

The included compare range data points are for the dates corresponding to the focus range. If the x-axis includes units of hours, the focus and compare data include the data for the same hour of the focus and compare day. For example, 12-1 AM of a focus day maps to 12-1 AM of a compare day.

• If the compare range is larger than the focus range, the extra data is discarded.
• If you include an x-axis dimension other than time, all data in the focus and compare ranges are evaluated and compared.