Diff / Computation Layer

Calculate differences between elements in a column shifted by a specified number of positions. Similar to pandas diff() or numpy.diff().

Mathematical form: $y_{i} = x_{i} - x_{i - n}$ where:

$i$ is the current position
$n$ is the shift amount
First $n$ positions will be null

Applications:

Time series analysis
Rate of change calculations
Sequential pattern detection
Trend analysis

Note: Positive shift looks backward, negative shift looks forward. Null values in input produce null differences.

Table

Select

column

The numeric column to compute differences. Examples with shift=1:

Input: [2, 4, 6, 8] → Output: [null, 2, 2, 2]
Input: [10, 7, 5, 2] → Output: [null, -3, -2, -3]

Must be a numeric column type

ShiftBy

i64

The number of positions to offset for difference calculation:

Positive: compare with previous values
Negative: compare with following values
1: adjacent differences
2: skip one position Larger shifts result in more null values

Name for the new column. If not provided, the system generates a unique name. If AsColumn matches an existing column, the existing column is replaced. The name should follow valid column naming conventions.