# COLUMN.PARENT

COLUMN.PARENT refers to the column's immediate parent in a column hierarchy. Chaining is possible - COLUMN.PARENT.PARENT refers to the grandparent and so on.

### Example <a href="#example" id="example"></a>

We want to calculate the percentage sales contribution from January to the first quarter.

One way to calculate would be to select the 'Units Sold' column of *January* and divide it by the 'Units Sold' column under *Qtr1.*

Instead, we can use the reference 'COLUMN.PARENT' to refer to *Qtr1* as it is the immediate parent of *January*. In the below image, you can see that for January in the *Canada* region, % Contribution is calculated as 14.26/34.43 resulting in 41.40%.

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/sB9HAei8v4FfKkH9M4gw/blobs/fMtz0PqFSLC0uQFScmpV/image.png" alt=""><figcaption><p>%contribution from January to Quarter1</p></figcaption></figure>

You can calculate the % sales contribution from January to the entire year using COLUMN.PARENT.PARENT.

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/sB9HAei8v4FfKkH9M4gw/blobs/7S0iWIzCOAWvbAvvmujr/image.png" alt=""><figcaption><p>%contribution from January to the entire year</p></figcaption></figure>