Introduction
Comparative time breakdowns enable you to visualize, compare, and analyze data over multiple distinct time periods. For example, it is possible to compare the performance of the current week against the previous three weeks, or yesterday’s performance to the same time six-months prior. Comparing time-framed data with up to four different time frames allows you to quickly identify deviations in performance or to quickly understand the impact of event-based changes.
Time comparison is available for all combinations of Catchpoint monitor types, test types, data trimming, data filtering, chart breakdowns (For Scatterplot chart, breakdown first needs to be enabled to view all breakdowns including "Comparative Time"), chart dimensions and host/zone analysis.
To access the time comparison feature
In Explorer, select the desired tests, the time frame, and the chart dimensions. The selected time frame will be the ‘base timeframe’ the other time periods are compared against. All time frames are available except for yearly time frames due to the data volume collected. Similar to the other breakdown metrics, proceed to the breakdown menu and select either “1st by ‘Comparative Time’” to view the Comparative time frames in separate charts or “2nd by ‘Comparative Time’” to view the Comparative times frames in one chart. Below is what it should look like:
Then proceed to the ‘Comparative Time’ menu to create up to three additional time periods for comparison against the current time frame. Each row of this menu represents a distinct time period where the checkbox activates/deactivates it and the number input/drop-down menu defines the time period. The options range from 0 hours prior to 2 years prior and are divisible down to hours, days, weeks and months. Below is what it should look like:
After setting any other desired trimming and filtering methods, the time comparative chart is now ready to draw. The desired time frames will be color-coded and a legend will generate identifying each time frame. The chart will display similar to this
