Tabular Reports › Variable Options › DIFF Option—Percentage of Change Between Time Intervals

DIFF Option—Percentage of Change Between Time Intervals

You can organize tabular reports by time or date. Use the DIFF option to create a column displaying the percentage of change in the value of a variable between each time interval. The percentage of change is calculated with the following formula:

((current value - previous value)/previous value)*100

DIFF command has the following syntax:

DIFF

The following commands use the DIFF option to display the percentage of change of transaction usage. The HDR2 option assigns an appropriate column heading.

EACH 1 DAY
TAB DATE TRAN USE AND,
 TRAN USE DIFF HDR2(%CHANGE)
 END
RUN

A report like the following is generated:

             TRAN        TRAN
   DATE      USE        %CHANGE
--------   ----------   ----------
01/08/08    15,765
01/08/08    22,165     +40.5%
01/04/08    66,374    +199.4%
01/05/08    91,302     +37.5%
01/06/08     2,535     -97.2%
01/07/08     2,123     -16.2%
--------   ---------   ----------
 PERIOD    200,264
--------   ---------   ----------

The difference between the number of transactions executed in the first interval and the second interval is 6400 (22,165 - 15,765). The difference is a 40.5 percent increase (6400 / 15,765 = 40.5 percent).