Rename objects in a Metric View

2025-01-27
Greg Baldini

Applies to:

❌ ~~Tabular Editor 2~~
Tabular Editor 3 (Available since 3.25.0)
❌ ~~Desktop~~

❌ ~~Business~~

✔ Enterprise

This how-to demonstrates how to rename Metric View dimensions using a copy-modify pattern for bulk transformations. The same patterns apply to all collections in a Metric View.

Deserialize Metric View for these code samples

This how-to uses a sample e-commerce Metric View representing sales data with three dimension tables (product, customer, date) joined to a fact table (orders). Run the snippet below first, if you'd like to follow along with the code in the rest of this how-to

SemanticBridge.MetricView.Deserialize("""
    version: 0.1
    source: sales.fact.orders
    joins:
      - name: product
        source: sales.dim.product
        on: source.product_id = product.product_id
      - name: customer
        source: sales.dim.customer
        on: source.customer_id = customer.customer_id
      - name: date
        source: sales.dim.date
        on: source.order_date = date.date_key
    dimensions:
      - name: product_name
        expr: product.product_name
      - name: product_category
        expr: product.category
      - name: customer_segment
        expr: customer.segment
      - name: order_date
        expr: date.full_date
      - name: order_year
        expr: date.year
      - name: order_month
        expr: date.month_name
    measures:
      - name: total_revenue
        expr: SUM(revenue)
      - name: order_count
        expr: COUNT(order_id)
      - name: avg_order_value
        expr: AVG(revenue)
      - name: unique_customers
        expr: COUNT(DISTINCT customer_id)
    """);

The copy-modify pattern

Since Metric View dimension names are properties on objects in a collection, the cleanest approach is to:

Create new Metric View Dimension objects with the modified names
Clear the original collection
Add the new objects

This avoids issues with modifying objects while iterating.

Convert snake_case to Title Case

Transform Metric View dimension names from product_name to Product Name:

using System.Globalization;
using MetricView = TabularEditor.SemanticBridge.Platforms.Databricks.MetricView;

var view = SemanticBridge.MetricView.Model;
var textInfo = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo;

var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.AppendLine("BEFORE");
sb.AppendLine("------");
foreach (var dim in view.Dimensions)
{
    sb.AppendLine($"  {dim.Name}");
}

// Create renamed dimensions
var renamed = view.Dimensions.Select(dim => new MetricView.Dimension
{
    Name = textInfo.ToTitleCase(dim.Name.Replace('_', ' ')),
    Expr = dim.Expr
}).ToList();

// Replace the collection
view.Dimensions.Clear();
foreach (var dim in renamed)
{
    view.Dimensions.Add(dim);
}

sb.AppendLine();
sb.AppendLine("AFTER");
sb.AppendLine("-----");
foreach (var dim in view.Dimensions)
{
    sb.AppendLine($"  {dim.Name}");
}

Output(sb.ToString());

Output:

BEFORE
------
  product_name
  product_category
  customer_segment
  order_date
  order_year
  order_month

AFTER
-----
  Product Name
  Product Category
  Customer Segment
  Order Date
  Order Year
  Order Month

Rename using a mapping dictionary

Apply specific renames using a lookup:

using MetricView = TabularEditor.SemanticBridge.Platforms.Databricks.MetricView;

var view = SemanticBridge.MetricView.Model;

// Define rename mappings
var renames = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
    { "product_name", "Product" },
    { "product_category", "Category" },
    { "customer_segment", "Segment" },
    { "order_date", "Date" },
    { "order_year", "Year" },
    { "order_month", "Month" }
};

var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

// Create renamed dimensions
var renamed = view.Dimensions
    .Select(
        dim => new MetricView.Dimension
        {
            Name = renames.TryGetValue(dim.Name, out var newName) ? newName : dim.Name,
            Expr = dim.Expr
        })
    .ToList();

// Replace the collection
view.Dimensions.Clear();
foreach (var dim in renamed)
{
    view.Dimensions.Add(dim);
}

sb.AppendLine("Renamed dimensions:");
sb.AppendLine("-------------------");
foreach (var dim in view.Dimensions)
{
    sb.AppendLine($"  {dim.Name,-20} <- {dim.Expr}");
}

Output(sb.ToString());