The Qlik Sense FROM FIELD Function

There are many functions and techniques within Qlik Sense that one might forget to recall when a challenge is presented. These functions can always use practical examples of implementation and use case scenarios. Let’s look at the FROM_FIELD function in Qlik Sense.

Load * FROM_FIELD

Load * FROM_FIELD is a useful script function in Qlik Sense that allows you to parse the contents of a single column into many columns or rows. Here are some practical examples:

• Address: Client Addresses are captured within a single column on the source system.
• Financial: Chart of Accounts – Allows the jagged hierarchy of the chart of accounts to be read from a single field and transposed to rows or columns.
• Sales: Bill of Material – Lines on an Invoice within the Inventory Management Systems a Bill of Material can have a jagged hierarchy stored within a single column within the source system.  This will then need separated into columns for reporting purposes.
• Website: Data captured within a single column and needs presented in multiple columns.

Columns

This script example provides the Address parsed out into columns:

Address:
Load * Inline [
Customer_ID, CustomerData
1101, 1101|Catering Service|25648 Fisherman Drive|Bellevue|NE|68005|United States
1102, 1102|Wedding Venue|PO Box 354 RW|Portsmouth|NH|03801|United States
];

Columns:
Load *
FROM_FIELD (Address, CustomerData)
(txt, utf8, no labels, delimiter is '|', msq);

Sample Output:

Rows

This example script provides the Web Data parsed out into rows.

Websites:
Load * Inline [
Website_ID, URLs
2546478SW$@265, www.cnn.com|www.foxnews.com|www.usatoday.com|www.nytimes.com
152478ER%^&154, www.google.com|www.snapchat.com|www.facebook.com|www.twitter.com
];

Rows:
Load *
FROM_FIELD (Websites, URLs)
(txt, utf8, no labels, delimiter is '|', filters(Transpose()));

Sample Output:

Alternatively, this can then be used as a filter within the application, not just for output in a chart or graph.

Conclusion

Qlik Sense offers flexibility and creativity to overcome the challenges of data and how best to present it.  This example of the FROM_FIELD function will hopefully help spark a creative solution to your next challenge.

Keep Reading: Cumulative Sum Expression Writing In Qlik Sense