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The Kitchen Table

Explore the product knowledge we've built up together

2115 Topics

sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How does an incorrect relationship affect queries?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 The relationship parameter only tells Looker whether or not to use symmetric aggregates. So, the worst case scenario from an incorrect relationship is that Looker does not apply symmetric aggregates when it really needs to. Thus, you can have fanout and potentially incorrect data.If you leave the "relationship" parameter blank, then Looker will apply "many_to_one".If you don't know the what the relationship is, "many_to_many" is the safest choice. The worst it will do is add unnecessary symmetric aggregates, which may cause slower queries but guarantees that fanout will not cause incorrect data. This content is subject to limited support.                

1570
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are my only filter options “is on the day/is equal to” and “matches user attribute”?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 If you are using a parameter as your filter, you will only see these two options, since parameters are designed to insert a single value into your code.On a dashboard, this will occur if the "Allow Multiple Values" feature for dashboard filters is off. Try turning it on.  This content is subject to limited support.                

560
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

List of visualization options no longer available in Enhanced VisualizationsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: July 2019  The following visualization options are no longer available in Enhanced Visualizations (Looker 6.0): Plot - Series Order (this can also be missing if Stacked or Stacked Percentage is not selected) Plot - Focus Lines on Hover Values - Value Density X - Time Tick Count X - Padding Left X - Padding Right The features were removed because they were originally introduced as workarounds for bad chart defaults.Keep in mind that the old visualizations are deprecated starting in Looker 6.0, so users will no longer have these options available by default. This content is subject to limited support.                

290
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I get queries to run without symmetric aggregates applied?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 You shouldn't do this. Symmetric aggregates are designed so that measure values are consistent no matter what joins are used in the query, and Looker does not support any solution that generates different measure values depending on what tables are joined.But what about the symmetric_aggregates parameter? Doesn't that disable symmetric aggregates?When you set symmetric_aggregates: no, all it does is disable any Measure that relies on symmetric aggregates and prevents it from running. It does NOT allow the measure to run a simple aggregation with no symmetric aggregates applied.I understand that symmetric aggregates are Required for consistent and accurate results, but i have decided that I want inconsistent and inaccurate results. How do I do this?Symmetric aggregates are applied with aggregation types like type: sum in LookML measures, but they are not applied when specifying an aggregate function in the sql parameter. So you can use a measure like the followin

2830
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What does the MD5 function do?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021  MD5 is just a hash that turns strings into hashes.It's useful for making IDs out of a concatenation of several fields, which makes it valuable for joins. Looker uses it in symmetric aggregates.Example:select md5('Amazon Redshift'); md5 ---------------------------------- f7415e33f972c03abd4f3fed36748f7a (1 row)Great blog explaining it. This content is subject to limited support.                

7411
chris.seymour
Looker Staff
7 months ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When should I use a measure of type string?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021  Anytime you have an aggregate that returns a string. A common example is a group_concat or listagg, though you could also concatenate two measures into a single string for aesthetic value.The docs explain this in more detail. This content is subject to limited support.                

1220
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I apply LookML access to a view file?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: April 2021 No. In Looker, all permissions are defined at the model level or instance level.Views are included in models, so by defining model-level permissions, you're also defining permissions on the included views. This content is subject to limited support.                

100
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to pass a filter condition to a derived table AND keep it in the main queryKnowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 The ProblemI need a condition to appear in the WHERE clause of my derived table, but I also need it to appear in the WHERE clause of my main Looker-generated query. So my final query should have the same condition in both places, like so :WITH derived_table AS ( SELECT * FROM table WHERE <condition>)SELECT * FROM derived_tableWHERE <condition>Solution 1: Using a filter fieldIn Docs, we have a great example of using a filter field to pass a condition into a derived table.view: customer_facts { derived_table: { sql: SELECT customer_id, SUM(sale_price) AS lifetime_spend FROM order WHERE {% condition order_region %} order.region {% endcondition %} ;; } filter: order_region { type: string }}However, this only passes the condition into the derived table. The condition will not appear in the main query.To have the condition appear in the main query, we take advantage of the fact that the sql parameter of a filter field is placed directly into the WHERE cla

63371
R
6 months ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can the individual series of a pivoted dimension be split between different axes ?Knowledge Drop

 Last tested: March 31, 2021 No. Each measure goes on one axis. If you have a measure pivoted, all of its pivoted values go on the same axis.If you want to specify the axis for a particular measure for each pivot, then use filtered measures instead. Create a filtered measure for each possible value (and maybe one more for any unanticipated values). Then you can specify which axis to use for each of your new measures (cite docs). This content is subject to limited support.                

470
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do you overwrite a default value in a link to a dashboard?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 If you have a default value set for a dashboard filter, then the usual method of setting dashboard filter values by URL does not work in all cases. For example, if you set the dashboard filter to the empty string like so:/dashboards/8?FilterA=&FilterB=Then Looker will overwrite this empty string with the default value.Instead, you need to add in a space character, known in HTML as %20. It doesn't cause the query to search for a space, but it does force the default value to be empty./dashboards/8?FilterA=%20&FilterB=Note: This will default the filter type to is equal to. If you want to change that, you can mess with the filter_config part of the dashboard, which you can find in the back half of the Looker-generated URL. You will want to use an URL decoder to help you change the values. In this example, to change the filter type to contains, you would do:dashboards/8?filter_config%3D%7B%22FilterA%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22contains%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B

1940
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Michael
MichaelMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Breaking News: Knowledge Drops are LIVE!

Democratizing information has always been a core tenet of Looker’s values. It’s how we all become better thinkers and better doers. This ethos isn’t just a philosophy or a catchy marketing phrase; it’s a practice - and it’s one we’ve always taken to heart. So in true Looker-fashion, we’re excited to announce: We are giving you access to hundreds of knowledge articles that were previously internal-only. These will be published to Community over the next 6 months for you to explore, learn, and discuss!  Dubbed ‘Knowledge Drops’, these articles were originally created by Lookers, for Lookers. They document many of the insightful tips, tricks, and Looker how-to’s that we have collected over the years. They have been a go-to resource for Lookers whenever we have product questions or want to become even greater Looker experts ourselves. And now, we’re offering them as a resource for all! How does this all work?  All of these articles now live within a new category: The Kitchen Table. Each

5841
er1k
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I merge user attribute values from multiple groups?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 Background: Groups are given user attribute values. For example, group_USA might be given the value for the “country” user attribute as “USA”. With an access filter, users in that group will get WHERE country = “USA” for their queries.The issue: If a user belongs to two groups, like group_USA and group_UK, each with different “country” user attribute values, this user will not inherit both user attribute values. Other types of permissions are additive with groups, but user attributes are not: one will “win out”.To solve the scenario where someone would need access to both countries, you might think you need to create a user attribute for each combination of user attribute values. While that would work, managing all the combinations might get unwieldy. The following pattern is an alternative.1. Create a user attribute for each possible individual value. Ex: a user attribute for every count2. Create a group for each user attribute.3. Assign groups to user attribut

5954
Beto
8 months ago
Michael
MichaelMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Important: Supportability of Knowledge Drops

We will not be updating Knowledge Drop content, nor do we guarantee that everything is up-to-date. The timestamp published on each Knowledge Drop denotes when it was last verified. We have spent years building up this treasure trove of insightful Looker tips, tricks, and how-to’s, but given how quickly Looker has evolved, we never expected this content to stay bleeding-edge forever.  Think of these Drops as point-in-time insights that were once important enough for us to document. That said, there’s a TON of extremely valuable and useful pieces of Looker knowledge here! We hope it inspires you to explore, learn, and engage with your fellow community members! If you have questions on these articles, please reply on the post for Community help! Plus, if you’re looking for officially supported resources, you can always visit our Help Center and review our Docs. 

33202
Md daud
10 days ago
izzy
izzyGood Looker
published in DCL Mic Drops

DCL Mic Drop: Won ParkMic Drop

DCL Mic Drop #2The Department of Customer Love (DCL) is Looker’s all-knowing support team. Yes, they're actually called that. They’re kind of the brains behind this whole operation! You may have talked to them via support chat or on a ticket, or maybe even in the Looker Community. Talking to DCL, I frequently have thoughts like “How is this person so smart?” or “Wow, why didn’t I know that?” It turns out that they religiously commit that bevy of knowledge to a secret internal knowledge base that’s never before seen the light of day… Until now... Starting at the end of 2020, every month a different member of the Department of Customer Love takes 5 of their favorite internal knowledge articles and declassify them, for the entire community to see. They’ll also give a little peek into their life and who they are, so you can say hi the next time you see them on chat.Last time, we had @lukas.fontanilla:This month, we’ve got @wonkyoung.park sharing her top 5 never-before-published nuggets of

2070
izzy
2 years ago
izzy
izzyGood Looker
published in DCL Mic Drops

DCL Mic Drop: Luka FontanillaMic Drop

Introducing DCL Mic DropsThe Department of Customer Love (DCL) is Looker’s all-knowing support team. Yes, they're actually called that. They’re kind of the brains behind this whole operation! You may have talked to them via support chat or on a ticket, or maybe even in the Looker Community. Talking to DCL, I frequently have thoughts like “How is this person so smart?” or “Wow, why didn’t I know that?” It turns out that they religiously commit that bevy of knowledge to a secret internal knowledge base that’s never before seen the light of day… Until now. Starting today, every month a different member of the Department of Customer Love will take 5 of their favorite internal knowledge articles and declassify them, for the entire community to see. They’ll also give a little peek into their life and who they are, so you can say hi the next time you see them on chat.This month, we’ve got @lukas.fontanilla sharing his top 5 never-before-published nuggets of wisdom from our internal knowledge

7613
Michael
1 year ago

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