Looker Like a Pro: Mastering Dashboards and Data (Even Without a Cape!)

Looker is a fantastic tool for data exploration and building dashboards, but sometimes it can feel like there are hidden secrets. Fear not, data warriors! This post breaks down some common Looker questions and empowers you to become a dashboard Jedi.

Tired of Waiting on Slow Queries?

Looker queries can take a while, especially if they're sifting through mountains of data. To keep things speedy, set timeouts in your LookML. Think of it like a kitchen timer for your query - Looker stops it automatically if it takes too long. No more endless buffering while your dashboards chug along!

Another trick for fresh data is something called "incremental loading." With this superpower, Looker only grabs the new stuff since the last refresh instead of re-downloading everything every single time. It's like refreshing your news feed - you only see the latest headlines, not the whole article again. Both timeouts and incremental loading help keep your Looker dashboards running smoothly.

Want Your Totals to Stand Out?

Looker doesn't let you force all totals to be perfectly centered, no matter what kind of data they are (numbers, percentages, etc.). But there are ways to make them look a bit more uniform!

For the other folks, a secret code called CSS can be used to tell Looker exactly how to display your totals. Think of it like giving Looker specific instructions on where to put things. But be careful. This code can be tricky and might only work in some places.

If you're not a coding wiz, don't worry! Looker has built-in options to play with the formatting of your totals row. Depending on the data type, adding a little padding on the left or right side makes it look more centered. It's like nudging things around visually to create a better balance.

There are also other tools that work with Looker data and offer more control over how your downloaded reports (PDFs, CSVs, etc.) look. If you need your totals to be perfectly centered no matter what, you should explore those options.

Remember, the best approach depends on your comfort level and what you need your data to do. That includes all the AGI buzz around you!

Using these tips and tricks, you can take your Looker dashboards from good to great, making data analysis a breeze (and maybe even a little fun!).