What happens when we have from and view_name together?

Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 21, 2019

When you use from and view_name together, from tells Looker what view to actually pull from and view_name can literally be anything. (per Paola)

So for example, say we have something like this:

explore: extension_hidden {  

extension: required

view_name: any_name_that_i_want

join: products {

sql_on: ${products.id} = ${any_name_that_i_want.id} ;;

type: left_outer

relationship: one_to_one

}

}

explore: order_items_3 {

extends: [extension_hidden]

from: orders}

The SQL generated in the UI will look like this:

SELECT

any_name_that_i_want.id AS any_name_that_i_want.id,

products.brand AS products.brand``

FROM demo_db.orders AS any_name_that_i_want

LEFT JOIN demo_db.products AS products ON products.id = any_name_that_i_want.id