Instaview metadata is made up of measures and dimensions. A measure is a standard numerical unit used to express the size, amount, or degree of something. As numeric data elements, measures are aggregated at query time by each dimension defined in the metadata. For example, the total volume of shares traded in the stock market in the history represents a single measure with a large, aggregated value in units. That summarized measure value is not very useful for investors unless the dataset also contains dimensionality.
The total volume of shares traded for Google stock (GOOG) on October 18, 2013, is a more meaningful measure value. Dimensions such as stock symbol and time add context to the measure of volume of shares. Dimensional data becomes powerful for business users when modeled correctly with multiple dimensions and measures to form a multidimensional model for analysis.
In our sample clickstream data, event dimensions provide context to the...