Virtual Fields

Virtual Fields allow you to derive new values from your data in real time

One of the most powerful features of Axiom are Virtual Fields. With Virtual Fields, there is no need to do any up-front planning of how to structure or transform your data. Instead, send your data as-is and then use Virtual Fields to manipulate your data in real-time during queries.

The feature is also known has "derived columns/fields", however Axiom's Virtual Fields have some unique properties that make them much more powerful.

In this guide, you'll be introduced to Virtual Fields, their features, how to manage them, and how to get the best out of them.

Creating a Virtual Field

To create a virtual field, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Datasets or the Stream tab.

  2. Select the dataset where you want to create the virtual field.

  3. Click the Virtual fields icon Virtual fields icon in the top right. You see a list of all the virtual fields for the dataset.

  4. Click Add virtual field.

  5. Fill in the following fields:

    • Name and Description help your team understand what the virtual field is about.
    • Expression is the formula applied to every event to calculate the virtual field. The expression produces a result such as a boolean, string, number, or object.

    The Preview section displays the result of applying the expression to some of your data. Use this section to verify the expression and the resulting values of the virtual field.

The power of virtual fields is in letting you manipulate data 'on read' instead of 'on write', allowing you to adjust and update virtual fields over time as well as easily add new ones without worrying that the data has already been indexed.

Usage

Visualizations

Virtual Fields will be available as parameters to visualizations but, as the type of a virtual field can be any of the supported types, it is important to make sure that you are using a virtual field that produces the correct type of argument.

Filters

Virtual Fields will be available in the filter menu and all filter options will be presented. It is important to ensure that you are using a supported filter operation for the type of result your virtual field produces.

Group By

Virtual Fields can be used for segmentation in the same way as any standard field.

Reference

Virtual Fields use a rich expression language that is easy to grasp but powerful in use. This section documents the language and the functions available.

To make things easier, Virtual Fields are just APL expressions (e.g. extend alias1 = expression1, alias2 = expression2, alias3 = ... ) , and therefore Virtual Fields share all the same functions and syntax as APL expressions. To learn more about APL, click here.

Below is a list of APL scalar functions:

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