Creating and linking dimensions

Creating dimensions

• Create a new dimension via the + icon in the in-model left panel.

• You can also create a new dimension directly on a variable by clicking on the Dimensions button and adding a dimension breakdown.

• Create a dimension from data
  • If dimensions exist in your data sources, these will show up as options when you click on the Dimensions button on a data-connected variable. If you select these dimensions, this will automatically create the dimension in Causal (if they do not exist in Causal yet), and add it to your model/variables. See linking dimensions to data sources for more.

• Give dimensions an icon to distinguish them, by clicking the icon next to the dimension name

• Add new dimension items in the bottom row where it says New Item. All dimension items for a dimension must be unique, i.e. you cannot have two duplicate dimension items.

Linking dimensions together

Often, there will be a relationship between dimensions. For example, assigning each Employee to a Job Title, or assigning each Deal to a Sales Rep. To link dimensions, click the + in the far-right column (via the Data Tables, or the standalone dimension workspace) and select the Link dimension option.

This will create an extra column in the data table, letting you map the two dimensions together (e.g. giving each Employee a Location).

Indirect dimension mappings

You can show/hide indirect dimension mappings in the Data Tables, or on the standalone dimension page. Here's an example:

• If each Employee has a Title, and each Title sits within a Team, then each Employee sits within a Team via their Title
• The "indirect" dimension mapping is from the Employee to their Team
• When in the Employee dimension, you can reveal the Team of each employee by hitting the ">" next to Title in the header

Bringing existing dimensions into models

To pull in an existing dimension into a model, simply find the dimension under the + icon in the in-model left panel. Bring in multiple dimensions at once by clicking multiple dimensions while the picker is open.

Or, click the Dimensions button on a variable, to add that dimension to the variable (and to the model).

Pasting dimension items into Causal

To paste data in (e.g. from a spreadsheet), simply copy your data, then select your row/s, and paste (Ctrl/Cmd + V). Causal will "paste over" whatever row/s you had selected. If you don't want to paste over what you have already in the Data Table, then create a New Item at the bottom of the table (you may have to take off alphabetical sorting if you have that applied), select that New Item, and paste over that.