Usage

view: view_name {
  dimension: field_name {
    allow_fill: yes
  }
}

Hierarchy

View File

view

Field Type

allow_fill

Possible Field Types

Dimension, Dimension Group

Default Value

yes

Accepts

A Boolean (yes or no)

Definition

Some datasets have values, such as dates, that follow a predictable pattern. A user might pull data by a time frame and find that some dates, weeks, months, or other date types don’t have any corresponding value. By default, the data table and the visualization will display dates returned from the query and skip any dates that are missing.

For these cases, Looker’s “dimension fill” option lets the user fill in missing dates and values in the data table and in the axis of the query’s visualization. This option is found in the dimension’s gear menu in the Data section of an Explore:

The allow_fill parameter for a dimension is used to enable or disable the option to fill in the missing values in the data table and in the axis of the visualization. By default, if the dimension type supports filling in missing values, the option is shown in the dimension’s gear menu. To disable the option to fill in missing values for a dimension, set allow_fill to no.

The allow_fill option is available for dimension groups and dimensions with yes/no values, tiered values, and most date types. It can also be applied to any dimension based on a list of values, via the case parameter. Missing values are filled in automatically for queries that run with a single dimension and/or a single pivot, just as long as the user has not applied filters to any measures.

Examples

Prevent a user from being able to fill in missing values for the Created Date dimension:

dimension: created_date { type: date sql: ${TABLE}.created_date ;; allow_fill: no }

Things to consider

There are a few other cases when the user will not be able to dimension fill:

Dimensions that make use of the order_by_field parameter
Dimensions that have a filter applied to them and also have a fixed number of values, such as yes/no, days of the week, days of the month, and so on
Drilling into a pivoted dimension
More than one dimension appears in the query

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