Different behavior between loading from source table and resident when using "star is" statement

There is a different behavior when using the "star is" statement between loading data directly from a source table and resident because values generated with a "star is" statement might not be transferred to a resident table.

Please be aware of the following when you are using the "star is" statement for example in the section access.

1) Loading from the source table: 

If you apply the "star is" statement and load data from the source table with "*" values, then you get a "Total" as a field value in the result table. 

Example 1:

star is *;

table1:
load * inline [
dim, key
A, 1
B, 2
C, *];

Result in table1:

dim    key
A        1
B        2
C       Total


2) Loading data from the resident:

If you load the same data from the resident applying the "star is" statement then you get a "-" value in the result table for the "*".

Example 2:

star is *;

table1:
load * inline [
dim, key
A, 1
B, 2
C, *];

NoConcatenate
table2:
load * Resident table1; 

drop table table1;

Result in table1:

dim    key
A       1
B       2
C       -

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Environments:

• QlikView (all versions)
• Qlik Sense (all versions)

Note: The described behavior is working as designed. 

Any field containing values generated with a "star is" statement will not transfer the "*" values to a resident table unless the actual resident table is being preceded by a "star is" statement. 

Workaround for example 2:

table1:
Load * inline [
dim, ke
A, 1
B, 2
C, * ];

star is *;

NoConcatenate
table2:
Load * Resident table1;

Drop table table1;

Result: This workaround has the same result as in example 1 described above.


Additional information:

There are further restrictions implemented for the ”star is” statement in Qlik Sense and correspondingly in QlikView (QV12.30 and later) as well, due to security reasons. 

The example mentioned above might not work for later versions than QV12.20. 

The following example could be a workaround for the later versions:

Example 3:

table1:
Load * inline [
Dim, Key
A, 1
B, 2
C, $ ];
 
star is *;

NoConcatenate
table2:
Load Dim, if(Key='$','*',Key) as Key Resident table1;
Drop table table1; 

Result: This workaround has the same result as in example 1 described above.