Circular Reference in Qlik

A circular reference occurs when a loop connects two or more tables. This might lead to confusion as you may find the same information in different ways.

It’s better to avoid these loops in our data model.

Scenario

Let’s take this with a simple example using three tables: Sales, Customers, and Regions.

1. Sales: CustomerID, SalesID, Amount
2. Customers: RegionID, CustomerID, CustomerName
3. Regions: RegionID, SalesID

All three tables are linked by their IDs, which can lead to a circular reference. Specifically:

• The CustomerID connects the Sales and Customers tables.
• The RegionID connects the Customers and Regions tables.
• The SalesID connects the Sales and Regions tables.

How to Resolve Circular References

To resolve circular reference, check your model and remove any relationship that aren’t necessary.

• The CustomerID connects the Sales and Customers tables.
• The RegionID connects the Customers and Regions tables.

Here are additional ways to eliminate circular references:

• Check the Data Model
• Remove Unnecessary Tables or Relationships
• Rename Fields
• Use Concatenation
• Avoid loops [Be Carful with Joins]
• Qualify Field Names
• Create a Bridge Table