Time Slide rounding dates

#1

Hello, I’m using the Time Slider component and I’ve notice a behaviour that may be correct, but I don’t fully understand it. The full data range is 2 years (2016 - 2018). If I zoom in and select, let’s say, from half september 2016 to half december of the same year, I would expect to see a filter like september 15, 2016 to december 15, 2016. But the selected range always include the full months (1 sept to 30 dec)

I’ve even zoomed in enough to select a specific day, but the same thing happens. Is this the way it should work?

#2

Hi @keith. Yes, Probably the granularity or time unit you’re using for the time field is MONTH. The filter that is triggered will be based always in the granularity used. If you want to include the day in the filter, then you have to use DAY and so on.

This is intended because in many cases you don’t care about other granularities other than the one you’re using, so if you’re analyzing at month level, it means that you want the full month (or months), so instead of having to manually select from the 1st of the initial month, to the 30th or 31st of the last one, then you can just select any part of it and the Time Slider will know you mean the full month. This makes selection easier.

Same thing applies to any other granularity.

#3

Thanks so much. Yes, I was using month, and as soon as I changed it to day, it worked. I also noticed that the picker now shows also the day (I also used hour and it changed to the same).

Now, I have another question, let’s say that I need to set a time filter from a different place, specifically loaded from somewhere else. Do I need to format the dates of the filter according to the Time Slider to prevent any weird thing?

#4

At all. The Time Slider is the one that provides that behaviour and let the Interaction Manager know what to display to be according with the triggered filter and granularity being used at that moment .

If a time filter is coming from any other place, then the data will be filtered according to the exact date values specified in that filter, there will be no approximation. The Time Slider will also display the exact range.