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The software peeps at our company make these neat reports for our business peeps. For example, we might have a report called "Sales by Day":

Sales by Day Report

Day Sales
Monday $100.00
Tuesday $200.00
Wednesday $450.00
Thursday $250.00
Friday $120.00

Another report may be Sales by Store (for all time):

Sales by Store Report

Store Sales
San Diego $10,000.00
Boston $30,000.00
Salt Lake City $25,000.00
Gotham $45,000.00

Now, if we wanted to show a breakdown per store mixed with per day, as in the following example, which title would be correct, and why?

Sales by Store by Day Report or Sales by Day by Store Report

San Diego

Day Sales
Monday $20.00
Tuesday $25.00

Boston

Day Sales
Monday $35.00
Tuesday $45.00

....

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3
  • Just to clarify: you're asking whether you work from the inside out, or from the outside in - correct?
    – MT_Head
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 19:35
  • I'd do the first, but I'm not sure.
    – Luke_0
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 19:36
  • @MT_Head yes, that's correct. I know what I think is right, but it's been a source of discussion lately.
    – Dave Kennedy
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 19:37

5 Answers 5

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I would replace one of your by with per:

Sales by Day per Store

Sales per Day by Store

In this context by and per are effectively synonymous, so you can use either variant. However, for consistency's sake you should probably use per consistently in one half of the formula or the other, so that you always say (for example) Sales Per Day, whether or not the store breakdown is given.

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  • 1
    I was just typing that same thing. FWIW, though, I think Sales per Day by Store seems much better than the other one, based on how the report is organized.
    – J.R.
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 20:02
  • That's a great suggestion, and one which I think I'll start using. I agree, I like Sales perDay by Store better. However, if I, for whatever unholy reason, insisted on using by twice, what would Sales by Day by Store mean? What's the correct interpretation of that?
    – Dave Kennedy
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 21:36
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First, offset the "levels" with commas or parentheses:

Sales by Store (by Day)

or

Sales by Store, by Day

If you are asking about the order, I think the correct order would be innermost to outermost grouping, but I cannot cite any authority for that, just experience.

Sales by Day, by Store

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1
  • Yes, in terms of order, "sales by day by store" is correct for this example. For each store, you are showing their "sales by day". Then, instead of just showing "sales by day" for a single store, you're showing "sales by day" for every store, one after the other. So this is "sales by day by store". Also, an alternative suggestion would be "sales by store and day".
    – user16269
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 22:44
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Looking at your two single-level examples (Sales by Day and Sales by Store), the Sales (numbers) appear on the right side, and the ordering qualifier appears to the left. So for consistency, I think I would continue that trend.

In your final example, sales are furthest to the right, then days, then stores - so I would title the report Sales by Day, by Store.

In all fairness, however, I could probably convince myself the other way too. As long as the labels of the qualifiers are clear, I don't think the title will lead to any confusion.

(edited to take @JeffSahol's excellent suggestion of offsetting by commas)

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1

Since the way you've grouped the data

It should say

Sales by Store by Day

or even better

Daily Sales by Store

Hope that helps!!!

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0

I take these results are from an SQL query. You don't get to choose which way it is written, as it has to follow the sequence of grouping in the SQL query. The grouping by sales then by day gives different results than grouping first by day then by sales.

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