Best options to re-name field / columns / custom fields from template datasets

Q&A
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1

Hello all, what is the best approach to change field/column name from a template dataset to a custom one ?

  • Lets say you have a template datasets that is then shared with different user and each of them use different terminology

    • i.e column A on template needs to be
      • Revenue for user1
      • Profit for user1
      • left column A for user3

  • Also is there a easy way to change already create custom dimension / measures names in viz objects without manual intervention?

    • For example if sum(column a) in a pivot table is now set as Total Revenue is there a way to change into Total Profit everywhere is my account?

I tried to search around and bumped into this Can we programmatically rename field/column in datasets, analysis, or dashboards? but I am not that familiar that type of development so I wanted to explore different possibilities. Thank you in advance

2

Hi @Franc3sc0,
In regards to the link you shared; if not looking to do programmatically, are you instead looking for a way to rename fields within the UI?

This can be done through editing the dataset:

  • Dataset layer: you can easily change field names by clicking on the column header/field name in the bottom ‘preview’ section. Or you can select the 3 dots (ellipses) next to the field name in the left panel and choosing ‘edit name and description’.

- Analysis layer: While you can’t change the field name in total from the analysis layer, you can change how the name is portrayed within a visual.

Additionally, can you clarify your second question about changing a custom dimension name without manual intervention? I’m not quite sure I understand the ask here.

3

Hi @Brett thanks for your reply.

Is there any other content we can review to do this programmatically?

Would you recommend doing it also via the new Prep screen ?

For the second point what I was referring to is the possibility to change programmatically for example the group by column names or the value column names in different tables or pivot tables without reviewing them one viz object at the time

Thanks

4

Hi @Franc3sc0,
Instead of handling with the API’s, another way you could handle this would be through customSQL when creating the datasets.
When you’re choosing the fields to bring in to the dataset, you can rename through using ‘AS’:

SELECT
’fieldname’ AS ‘desiredfieldname’

In terms of API’s, you can look further in to the UpdateDataSet call:

For the second question; if you’d like to make a field name adjustment that carries over between visuals, I would suggest creating a calculated field that you can use in place so that you don’t have to keep changing the name. Label the calc. field what you’d like your column name to be and then you can simply use the ‘switch’ function

5

Thanks @Brett I have the feeling I need to look further into the API then since we have a lot of templated datasets where we need to update the columns based on the environment the datasets get released into.. It is not doable for us manually working this via SQL ..thanks again for the help ill close the ticket