Measure type: number – Looker Help Center

Please check out the original documentation for most up-to-date information.

type: number is used with numbers or integers. A measure of type: number does not perform any aggregation, and is meant to perform simple transformations on other measures. If you are defining a measure based on another measure, the new measure must be of type: number to avoid nested-aggregation errors.

The sql parameter for type: number measures can take any valid SQL expression that results in a number or an integer.

type: number fields can be formatted by using the value_format or value_format_name parameters.

For example, the following LookML creates a measure called total_gross_margin_percentage based on the total_sale_price and total_gross_margin aggregate measures, then displays it in a percentage format with two decimals (12.34%):

measure: total_sale_price {
 type: sum
 value_format_name: usd
 sql: ${sale_price} ;;
}

measure: total_gross_margin {
 type: sum
 value_format_name: usd
 sql: ${gross_margin} ;;
}

measure: total_gross_margin_percentage {
 type: number
 value_format_name: percent_2
 sql: ${total_gross_margin}/ NULLIF(${total_sale_price},0) ;;
}

The example above also uses the NULLIF() SQL function to remove the possibility of division-by-zero errors.

Things to consider for type: number

There are several important things to keep in mind when using type: number measures:

A measure of type: number can perform arithmetic only on other measures, not on other dimensions.
Looker’s symmetric aggregates will not protect aggregate functions in the SQL of a measure type: number when computed across a join.
The filters parameter cannot be used with type: number measures, but the filters documentation explains a workaround.
type: number measures will not provide suggestions to users.

The Measure Types documentation page details more information about all current supported measure types:

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Things to consider for type: number