title: Amazon Web Service CloudWatch custom metrics with dimensions
body: <p>I'm trying to push data into a custom metric on AWS CloudWatch but wanted to find out more about the Dimensions and how these are used? I've already read the AWS documentation but it doesn't really explain what they are used for and how it affects the graphing UI in the AWS Management Console.</p>
  
  <p>Are Dimensions a way to breakdown the Metric Value further?</p>
  
  <p>To give a fictitious example, say I have a metric which counts the number of people in a room. The metric's name is called "Population". I report the count once a minute. The Metric Count is set to the number of people. The Dimension field is just a list of Name and Value pairs. Assuming I report a datapoint with a value of 90, can I add two Dimensions as follows:
  1. Name: Male, Count: 50
  2. Name: Female, Count: 40</p>
  
  <p>Any help will be greatly appreciated.</p>