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[en] AB Controls Tool Icon AB Controls Tool

[en] The AB Controls tool matches one to ten control units (for example, stores, customers, etc.) to each member of a set of previously selected test units, based on criteria such as seasonal patterns and growth trends for a key performance indicator (for example, sales or traffic), along with other user-provided criteria (for example, trade area or demographic characteristics). Possible control units are matched to a user-provided set of treatment units using nearest neighbor methods based on a kd-tree algorithm.

重要

[en] To greatly improve computational speed, the AB Controls tool uses an approximation algorithm to handle the assignment of control units to treatment units. That algorithm performs best when you have a small number of treatment units and a large number of number of control units. But the algorithm isn't able to handle cases where the ratio of treatment units to control units nears 1:1 or where you have many treatment units. In those cases, the tool overrides the option to Allow each control unit to be assigned to only a single treatment unit.

[en] This tool uses the R tool. Go to Options > Download Predictive Tools and sign in to the Alteryx Downloads and Licenses portal to install R and the packages used by the R Tool. See Download and Use Predictive Tools.

[en] Connect Inputs

  • [en] D anchor: (Data) A data stream that contains the unit-level measures to match control units to treatment units.

  • [en] T anchor: (Treatments) A data stream that contains a field that provides the unit identifiers (for example, stores or customers) for a test's treatment units.

[en] Configure the Tool

[en] Use the Base Configuration tab to set the controls for the AB test.

  • [en] The identifier field for the treatment units: The field with the treatment unit identifier for the Treatments input. This field must be some sort of character-based type like String or V-String.

  • [en] The unit identifier field for the selection measures: The field with the unit identifier for the Data input of measures on which to base the match of controls to treatments.

  • [en] Select the numeric measure to match control units to treatment units: The fields in the Data input upon which to base the match of treatments to controls.

  • [en] Number of control units per treatment unit: The number of control units to match to each treatment unit, which can range from 1 to 20.

  • [en] Allow each control unit to be assigned to only a single treatment unit: A checkbox option to make each control assigned to only a single treatment unit, by default this is true.

[en] Use the Graphics Options tab to set the controls for the graphical output.

  • [en] Plot size: Select inches or centimeters for the size of the graph.

  • [en] Graph resolution: Select the resolution of the graph in dots per inch: 1x (96 dpi), 2x (192 dpi), or 3x (288 dpi).

    • [en] Lower resolution creates a smaller file and is best for viewing on a monitor.

    • [en] Higher resolution creates a larger file with better print quality.

  • [en] Base font size (points): Select the size of the font in the graph.

[en] View the Output

  • [en] C (Controls): A Designer data stream with the field Controls, the unit identifier code for each control unit.

  • [en] A (Assignment): A Designer data stream with the field Treatment that gives the unit identifier code for each treatment unit, and the fields Control 1 to Control N (where N is the user-provided number of controls per treatment unit that given the unit identifier code for each control unit assigned to a particular treatment unit, and is provided for diagnostic purposes.

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