I was looking to rename a few screen names that were already logged into Google Analytics, then I read that any data that were already processed in GA cannot be modified or deleted. But then I learnt about filters that can be applied for views and I tried applying the 'Search and Replace' filter on the view.
For eg, I have 2 screens (Behavior -> Screens) - say screen1 and screen2. I now apply a 'Search and Replace' filter on the view to search 'screen1' and replace it with 'ScreenA' and set the 'filter field' to 'screen label'.
- When I now check the screens under Behavior -> Screens, I expected the names to be ScreenA, screen2. but they are screen1, screen2, ScreenA. That is, any new screen hits that happen in place of screen1 are logged as ScreenA. In that way, screen1 and ScreenA pretends to be 2 different screens on the list.
Does that how the 'Search and Replace' filter really work ?
Can anyone who know about / worked with filters pour in some suggestions here pls?
Or is there any other way to rename the screen name so as to make the old screen name and the newer name to have a single entry on the list ?
Similar way, is there a way to delete the previous unwanted screen entries?
The only way to remove data from a view is to remove the view.
Filters (as part of the view settings) do only apply to incoming data, not to data that is already collected.
About the only way to change data is query time import in a GA 360 account, and chances are that you do not have that (that's the commercial version for some 100k per year).
So no, there is nothing you can do on the data you already have. For the data that's coming in your understanding of filters is correct.
While you cannot change the data within Google Analytics itself, you can try using Google Data Studio and create calculated field that returns a dimension to "rename" the data points, most likely using CASE (this might get a little tedious if you need to change many screen names). You could then do your reports in Data Studio (which offers a nicer interface, but as a reporting tool has less analytical capabilities).