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offset

Input Stack:
duration: Duration
expr: TimeSeriesExpr
 ⇨ Output Stack:
TimeSeriesExpr
 

Shift the time frame used when fetching the data to look at a previous interval. This is commonly used for comparative analysis like day-over-day, week-over-week, or year-over-year comparisons by overlaying current and historical data.

Warning

Streaming Limitations: Offset cannot be used with streaming execution of queries. For real-time change detection over short intervals, consider using the delay operator instead.

Info

Deprecated Variant: There is a deprecated List[Duration] variant that only modifies the presentation layer. It cannot be used with mathematical operations and should be avoided.

Parameters

  • expr: The time series expression to apply the time offset to
  • duration: The time duration to shift backward (e.g., 1w, 1d, PT1H)

Duration Formats

  • Simple format: 1w (1 week), 1d (1 day), 1h (1 hour)
  • ISO 8601 format: PT1H (1 hour), P1D (1 day), P1W (1 week)

Examples

Week-over-week comparison (show current and previous week):

BeforeAfterCombined
name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by

name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by,
1w,:offset

name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by,
:dup,
1w,:offset

Hour-over-hour comparison using ISO 8601 duration:

BeforeAfterCombined
name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by

name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by,
PT1H,:offset

name,sps,:eq,
(,name,),:by,
:dup,
PT1H,:offset

Common Use Cases

  • Trend analysis: Compare current metrics with historical baselines
  • Anomaly detection: Identify deviations from typical patterns
  • Performance regression: Detect when current performance differs from past
  • Seasonal comparison: Compare metrics across similar time periods
  • :delay - Time shifting for streaming execution contexts
  • :dup - Duplicate series for comparison (commonly used with offset)
  • :sub - Calculate differences between current and offset data
  • :div - Calculate ratios between current and offset data
  • :time - Generate time-based values for reference