Monthly Archives: February 2011

Merging tables: the JOIN prefix

Merging tables: the JOIN prefixThis is the second post in a series on merging tables in QlikView. In the previous post I wrote about appending rows to tables by using the CONCATENATE prefix, this time I will show you how to add  columns to a previously loaded table by using the JOIN prefix. read more »

Hands-on with QlikView Script Generator

A marble track of data!I have a confession to make. As someone who comes from a background of visual ETL tools (such as SAP BO Data Integrator and Informatica PowerCenter) loading data into QlikView via scripts has always struck me as somewhat old-fashioned.

Don’t get me wrong. I can very much appreciate a good QlikView script. It is just that whenever I hear someone say that QlikView does not need a visual way to load data and that script is fine it reminds me of the “veteran” DBA’s I’ve met during my work as a BI Consultant. If you have worked in BI/data warehousing for any length of time you probably know the type, lots of facial hair, heavy smoker, followed his last training in 1986 and, most importantly, he is absolutely adamant that PL/SQL is the only right way to do ETL. Graphical tools are for kids and amateurs!

I do not agree with that statement, so you can imagine that I was pleasantly surprised when I read the announcement for QlikView Script Generator (QsGen) this week. QsGen promises, amongst other things:

  • Visually design complex scripts to load your data
  • No more need of scripting skills
  • 500% faster design

Interested to see if I really would not need any scripting skills to build fantastic “marble tracks” of data I decided to download the trial version and test it with QlikView 10 SR1.

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