An intro to metrics and dimensions - Lightdash

What are metrics and dimensions?

Metrics and dimensions are defined in your dbt project alongside your dbt model properties.

Dimensions are used to segment data in your Tables.
Metrics are used to perform calculations on your Tables.

Say we’re running an ecommerce business, we probably have a table containing all order data. We might want to ask: This question can be answered using a single metric “the total number of unique orders” and a single dimension for splitting the metric by “status of order”. In Lightdash you’d get the following chart:

To learn more about why we use dimensions and metrics in Lightdash, read the Lightdash approach to BI.