Version of PREVIOUS that works ad infinitum?

PaulCooper
PaulCooper
in Modeling

For actuals months I am calculating a 3 month moving average of percentages across several dimensions. For forecast months I want to repeat the results from the final month of actuals all the way to the end of my time range. Is there a formula for this? It seems that PREVIOUS should do this but it is only returning the previous month's value once (so for the first forecast month) and then stopping, rather than continuing to reproduce the previous month's values ad infinitum, which is what I want. Thanks

Best Answer

  • jasonblinn
    jasonblinn
    Answer ✓

    Hello @PaulCooper

    I think you are very close! The previous formula can reference the same line it is written in, since the previous function and time make it so that it will not cause a circular reference in this case.

    I tried to mock this up to show.

    image.png

    As you can see, I referenced the Previous to my Final Line, since this would continue my logic until the end of time.

    Had I put Previous(Moving 3) then it would just show the 200 in April 24, since each month it would continue to look to the Moving 3 line.

    image.png

    The arrows in both cases are showing where the calculation is pulling from.

    I hope this helps!
    Jason

Answers

  • rob_marshall
    rob_marshall

    @PaulCooper

    Can you please show the logic you currently have as well as the blueprint?

  • PaulCooper
    PaulCooper

    Jason, you're a legend. Thank you. Had some sort of mental block that made me refuse to consider applying the PREVIOUS in a self-referential way like that.

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