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Indicator

Written by
Updated at March 6, 2025

An indicator reflects the value of a single key measure. You can use several measures to build a more complex and meaningful indicator.

You may want to use indicators when a dashboard contains values you need to monitor on a regular basis to understand the general picture. This could be, for example, the number of incidents for the previous day, plan performance percentage, or year-on-year sales growth.

Indicators are most commonly placed at the top or on the right side of a dashboard. Put no more than six indicators per screen so they remain in focus without confusing the user. Use indicators of different sizes to build a hierarchy of metrics according to their significance.

indicator-chart

You can set up the size and color of an indicator.

indicator-chart-red

Source table
Year Sales
2022 6M
2021 28M
2020 18M
2019 9M
2018 1M

Wizard sections

Section
section		 Description
Measure Measure. One measure that determines the indicator value.
Filters Dimension or measure. Used as a filter.

Creating an indicator

To create an indicator:

Warning

If you use a new DataLens object model with workbooks and collections:

  1. Go to the DataLens home page. In the left-hand panel, select Collections and workbooks.
  2. Open the workbook, click Create in the top-right corner, and select the appropriate object.

Follow the guide from step 4.

  1. Go to the DataLens home page.
  2. In the left-hand panel, select Charts.
  3. Click Create chart → Chart.
  4. At the top left, click Select dataset and specify the dataset to visualize.
  5. Select the Indicator chart type.
  6. Drag a dimension or measure from the dataset to the Measure section. The value is displayed as a number.

Additional settings

Changing indicator size and color

To change indicator size and color:

  1. In the Measure section, click .
  2. In the Indicator settings window, select the size and color and click Apply.

Customizing header display

To customize header display:

  1. At the top of the screen, click next to the chart type.

  2. Select header display options:

    • Field name: Show field name in header.
    • Manually: Rename header.
    • Hide: Hide header.

  3. Click Apply.

Chart settings window

indicator-chart-settings

Creating a complex indicator

To create a complex indicator representing a number of measures, use the markup functions. To do this:

  1. Create a calculated field using the markup functions.
  2. Drag a field from Measures to the indicator's Measure section.
Text formatting
BOLD(SIZE('Payment by card: ', '18px')) +
BR() + BR() +
SIZE(COLOR(STR(COUNTD_IF([OrderID], [PaymentType]='Bank card')),'blue') + ' / ' + STR(COUNTD([OrderID])), '26px') +
BR() + BR() +
SIZE(STR(ROUND(COUNTD_IF([OrderID], [PaymentType]='Bank card')/COUNTD([OrderID])*100, 2)) +
' %  in total', '20px')

indicator-fonts

Indicator with multiple measures
SIZE('Amount: ', '18px') +
BR() + BR() +
COLOR(SIZE('- categories: ' + STR(COUNTD([ProductCategory])), '18px'), '#BE2443') +
BR() +
COLOR(SIZE('- subcategories: ' + STR(COUNTD([ProductSubcategory])), '18px'), 'blue') +
BR() +
COLOR(SIZE('- brands: ' + STR(COUNTD([ProductBrend])), '18px'), 'green') +
BR() +
COLOR(SIZE('- products: ' + STR(COUNTD([ProductName])), '18px'), '#FF7E00')

indicator-some-measures

Indicator with a measure by category
SIZE('Sales: ' + COLOR(STR([Sales])+ ' ₽', 'green'), '26px') +
BR() +
COLOR(" ▲ ", "green")+": More than ₽50,000,000  | " + COLOR(" ▼ ", "red") + ": ₽50,000,000 or less" +
BR() + BR() +
SIZE(
    COLOR('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Home appliances'))+ ' ₽ | ', 'blue') + 
    COLOR(if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Home appliances')>50,000,000, " ▲ "," ▼ "), if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Home appliances')>50,000,000,"green", "red")),
    '20px') +
BR() + 'Home appliances' +
BR() + BR() +
SIZE(
    COLOR('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household chemicals'))+ ' ₽ | ', 'green') + 
    COLOR(if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household chemicals')>50,000,000, " ▲ "," ▼ "), if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household chemicals')>50,000,000,"green", "red")),
    '20px') +
BR() + 'Household chemicals' +
BR() + BR() +
SIZE(
    COLOR('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household products'))+ ' ₽ | ', 'violet') + 
    COLOR(if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household products')>50,000,000, " ▲ "," ▼ "), if(SUM_IF([Sales],[ProductCategory]='Household products')>50,000,000,"green", "red")),
    '20px') +
BR() + 'Household products'

indicator-categories

Indicator with an image
IMAGE('https://storage.yandexcloud.net/dl--********//datalens.jpg', 32, 32, 'alt-text-1') +
COLOR(SIZE('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Usage],[Service]='DataLens')), '32px'), '#AEC5F3') +
BR()+
COLOR(SIZE('DataLens', '20px'), '#AEC5F3')+
BR()+
BR()+
IMAGE('https://storage.yandexcloud.net/dl--********//powerbi.jpg', 32, 32, 'alt-text-1') +
" " + COLOR(SIZE('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Usage],[Service]='Power BI')), '32px'), '#B8A754')+
BR()+
COLOR(SIZE('Power BI', '20px'), '#B8A754')+
BR()+
BR()+
IMAGE('https://storage.yandexcloud.net/dl-********/tableu.jpg', 32, 32, 'alt-text-1') +
" " + COLOR(SIZE('| ' + STR(SUM_IF([Usage],[Service]='Tableau')), '32px'), '#4D5DAB')+
BR()+
COLOR(SIZE('Tableau', '20px'), '#4D5DAB')

indicator-some-measures

Recommendations

  • Use emojis when calculating indicator values to make them more informative.

    indicator-chart-emoji

    This indicator chart uses a calculated field with the following formula: IF([Average spend]>2200, CONCAT("✔️",STR(ROUND([Average spend]))),CONCAT("🔻",STR(round([Average spend])))).

  • Describe the context to make it clear what indicators mean.

    indicator-chart-context

See also

Previous
Pivot table
Next
Overview