Select documentation version:

Var Groups (Features)

Use var_groups to define features for your Profiles entities.

2 minute read

var_groups define and organize features for entities and cohorts, and they consist of input_vars and entity_vars.

You can var_groups in the profiles.yaml file:

yaml

var_groups:
    name: var_groups_name
    entity_key: entity_name
    time_grain: day
    vars:
        - input_var:
          <input-var-config>
        - entity_var:
          <entity-var-config>

Key	Description
`name`	Name of the `var_groups`.
`entity_key`	`entity` for the defined vars.
`time_grain`	Controls how often features in this group are computed. This parameter accepts the following values: `tick`, `10minutes`, `hour`, `day`, `week`, `month`, `year`. See Timegrains for details.
`vars`	Definition of entity and input vars.
`entity_var`	Entity variable configuration.
`input_var`	Input variable configuration. See warning below.

Input vars scan all input data on every run, which can be expensive for large datasets.
Consider using entity_var with Incremental Features or Incremental SQL Models instead for better performance.
Use input_var only when you need to add a calculated column to the input table itself (for example, window functions that must be computed before entity-level aggregation).

Example

yaml

var_groups:
    name: user_var_group
    entity_key: user
    time_grain: day  # Features in this group are computed daily
    vars:
        - input_var:
          name: page_count
          select: count(distinct url)
          from: inputs/rsPages
          window:
            partition_by:
              - profile_id
              - date
          description: Add column to rsPages SQL model to get a page count per date
        - entity_var:
          name: web_dates_visited_365_days
          select: array_agg(distinct object_construct('date', date, 'page_count',{{pages_orderby_table.page_count}}))
          from: inputs/rsPages
          description: rolling 365 days array of json objects with the UTC timestamps the user visited the website along with the number of pages visited per date stamp
        - entity_var:
          name: first_order_date
          select: min(order_date)
          from: inputs/orders
          description: First order date
        - entity_var:
          name: last_order_date
          select: max(order_date)
          from: inputs/orders
          is_feature: false
        - entity_var:
          name: days_since_la`st_order
          select: "date_diff(CURRENT_DATE(), date({{user.last_order_date}}), day)"
          description: Days since user last completed an order

Var Groups (Features)

Example

Questions? Let's figure it out together.