Cannot make calculated field in Q topic, returns error "null"

Our company is trying a trial of QuickSight Q, and we’re making a test topic to see how useful it is. However, for some reason it absolutely refuses to let us make a calculated field, and returns the non-helpful error ‘null’ in the corner every time I try to save the field.

Even extremely simple calculations like sum({Sales}) or even simply {Sales} does not seem to work. Is there something we’re missing, or is Q just broken?

Our use case for Q absolutely depends on our ability to make calculated fields aggregated for date ranges or multiple locations. If we cannot do this we won’t be able to use Q.

Hi there, sorry to hear this isn’t working correctly. I’m not able to reproduce this immediately and would need some more information to deep dive. Would you mind opening a support case so we can investigate?

@Lawrence_Kimsey - In the interim, please check if your topic has duplicate names in Friendly Names. If so, please rename those and you will be able to create calculated fields. We are tracking this issue on our end.

It turns out I had duplicate names. Would be nice if future updates had a more clear error message about this.

Yes! We have added that capability now.