Dimension modifiers
Dimension modifiers allow you to slice & dice referenced variables within formulas, using the related dimensions & dimension items. For the 101 on Dimensions go here.
Grouping by linked dimensions
Once you've linked dimensions together, you can then easily slice variables along different dimensions.
Example: we have an Employee dimension, which is linked to a Team dimension. By default, we've worked out Salaries by Employee, and now we're interested in seeing Salaries by Team.
Click on the Dimension icon in the referenced variable in the formula, and then select the desired dimension and click Group By.
If you want to "Group by" multiple dimensions at one time just hold down shift and click each of the dimensions as you're selecting. e.g. if you want to group by Team and then Role. This displays as multiple layers of nesting.
Filtering by dimension items
Sometimes you'll want to select a single item from a dimension and use it in a formula.
Click on the Dimension icon in the referenced variable in the formula, and then select the desired dimension and then click on the individual item you want to filter by.
Example: if I want to do a calculation only based off the Engineering Team's salaries, you would select engineering under Team.
Note: if you want to filter for multiple dimension items, just hold down shift and click each of the dimension items as you're selecting.
Aggregating away a dimension
Sometimes you'll also want to aggregate away a dimension, if you no longer care to see that level of granularity.
Example: If I've filtered Salary by Employee for just the Engineering Team, but I no longer care to see the Employee breakdown, I would aggregate the Employee dimension.
Other ways of using dimensions
There are a few other ways that you can use / manipulate dimensions and dimension items within variables and formulas, that are not Variable modifiers in formulas.
Aggregating at the variable level
Sometimes you might want to change how a variable aggregates it dimension items. Causal's default is to sum the dimension items, but see Dimension aggregation for more options.