26 April 2022 Splitting strings with the Qlik SubField() function Share this message Every Friday at Bitmetric we’re posting a new Qlik certification practice question to our LinkedIn company page. Last Friday we asked the following Qlik Data Architect certification practice question about the Qlik SubField() function used to split strings based on a common delimiter: The correct answer is C: SubField() Without going in too to much depth of whether #HoursWorked is a measure we should be scared of or not, we guess this question hasn’t taken too much of your time this week, seeing how unanimously this has been answered. A transformation which is pretty commonly encountered is separating values from a single field. Whether it is a comma separated value, a composed field or retrieving information from a file location, it is often necessary to extract only part of a field value. For this question SubField() would be the syntax of choice. The power of SubField() lays in the fact that we separate the values based on a given delimiter, rather then a length. While in this case we could have simply said Right(‘$(vField’), 4) to retrieve the right four characters, this wasn’t part of the options, nor is it the most elegant. In many cases this won’t suffice, because the field we are trying to separate has a variable length or the whole string consists of more than two words. Qlik SubField() syntax The SubField() function has the following syntax: SubField(text, delimiter[, field_no ]) Reviewing the answer; our text is the variable vField which is split by a single space as the delimiter and we would like to return the second field number to retrieve only the year number from the string. Another thing to know about SubField() is that the field number we would like to return can be either a positive or a negative number. If we use a positive number, the return value would be the first field before the set delimiter and work its way subsequently backwards. If we use a negative number, the field value after the last delimiter would be returned and works its way subsequently forwards. To visualize: SubField(‘This is a test’, ‘ ‘, 3) returns ‘a’ SubField(‘This is a test’, ‘ ‘,-1) returns ‘test’ That’s it for this week. See you next Friday? More from the Bitmetric team Take your Qlik skills to the next level! Since 2013, the Masters Summit for Qlik is the premier advanced training for Qlik. Join us in Vienna and take your Qlik skills to the next level. Join the team! Enjoying these challenges? We have many more, and we’ll even pay you to solve them 😉 Check out our job opening. Friday Qlik Test Prep Functions Qlik Solution How can we help? Barry has over 20 years experience as a Data & Analytics architect, developer, trainer and author. He will gladly help you with any questions you may have. Call us Mail us 22 March 2024 Picking the right color palette for your visualization Discover how to choose the perfect color palette for your data visualizations with our expert guide. Learn about single, categorical, sequential, and diverging color palettes to enhance your charts and graphs. Ideal for data analysts and visualizers. Friday Qlik Test Prep Qlik SenseTheme Visualization 11 March 2024 5 ways to pass selections between Alternate States in Qlik Sense This guide delves into the intricacies of passing selections between Alternate States in Qlik Sense, offering a comprehensive look at techniques such as explicit and implicit assignments, merging selections, and utilizing granularity. Perfect for developers and data analysts, it equips you with the knowledge to leverage Alternate States effectively, enhancing dashboard functionality and enriching data analysis. Expressions Friday Qlik Test Prep Qlik 29 February 2024 What’s New in Qlik Sense February 2024 for Administrators This Qlik Sense February 2024 release provides Qlik Sense administrators a summary of the features and improvements available. New Release Qlik
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