New EXCEL Connector For Looker Studio!

[@TheAlwaysGoel]

Thanks for the information

[@AntisRentetakos]

How do you manage the date fields? In the Excel file, my field is a date format but Looker stores it as a number.

[@LearnBI]

Make sure the format is YYYY-MM-DD

[@AntisRentetakos]

@@LearnBI Correct this is the date format I've chosen, however looker shows eg 44564

[@LearnBI]

Make sure the column is specified as a date with that format in Excel. When loading into Looker if it is still recognised as a number, try manually changing it to a date in the data source schema.

[@AntisRentetakos]

​@@LearnBI Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I tried many times but the issue is still there. Also, when I try to change the type in Looker I get the error Looker Studio can't convert Order Date (Number) to a Date or Date & Time because it doesn't recognize the date format. I also tried the parse function as Looker prompts me but still no fix.

[@LearnBI]

Sounds very odd to me. You have selected the date column, pressed ctrl or cmd 1 to bring up the format options and then selected the correct date format? Try exporting the sheet to a CSV file and then open that up in a text editor to check what format the dates are. Or you could copy and paste the data into a new sheet then try loading that.

[@mohammedomar8788]

Is updating data with excel connector is the same with any another connector??

[@LearnBI]

Excel is a file-based connector like CSV/TXT but it doesn't work in the same way in that you cannot combine Excel files. Does that answer your question?

[@mohammedomar8788]

@@LearnBI so if I have updated data in my excel with the same headers and every thing I just upload the same excel sheet as new data source then delete the old one and refresh data in looker?

[@LearnBI]

Correct. Just upload the new file and choose it as the source for the data.

[@mohammedomar8788]

@@LearnBI OK I'm trying it right now and I will till you what is going on

[@samwilson3408]

Is there ability to refresh data in looker studio if new data is added to the used data source or will I still have to upload the updated data source as an entirely new data source to looker studio?

[@LearnBI]

As Looker Studio is cloud-based, no direct file path is stored to enable automatic refresh to occur unlike other on-premise tools like Power BI. To refresh the Excel data in Looker Studio, you would just need to edit the data source, upload a new file and select that as the new data source for the connection. The whole process can be done in just 4 clicks.

[@samwilson3408]

@@LearnBIdoes this then act as a new data source? I am constantly battling google sheets cell limits but I do not want to re-create metrics and blended sources for monthly dashboards. When updating the data source as described above, will metrics and blended data sources stick?

[@LearnBI]

As far as I know (having worked a lot with cloud BI tools and not having any special inside knowledge of this new connector), as long as the structure of the file and the field names are the same between the original file used to create the data source and the new file you upload, you will simply be swapping out one file for another. Which means whatever you have created using the original data source should still work without the need to recreate it. EDIT: in fact, I just tested it and it seems to work that way. You simply upload and select the new file then "Reconnect". Looker Studio compares the new file to what was originally used to create the data source and tells you what has changed. You can then choose to apply those changes or not. I could still load my original dashboard without any problem with the updated data source and blended data.

[@samwilson3408]

@@LearnBI thank you! Loving all of the updates by the looker studio team! Great videos, will definitely recommend!

[@TheAireaidLord]

yeah this doesn't work. whenever I upload the data it doesn't show any metrics within looker. The only one it shows is record count. I have to create them all which gives me errors. This is impossible or this requires another video to explain because this makes zero sense

[@LearnBI]

It's most probably a formatting issue with your file.

[@LearnBI]

It's most probably a formatting issue with your file.