QVD Structure

  • XML Header w/ Metadata
  • Symbol table for efficient storage of field values
  • Actual data in an optimized format

Benefits of QVDs

  • SPEED
    • Load 10-100 times faster than most other data formats / direct connections to databases
    • Designed for Qlik
  • Reduced Server Load
    • Minimize load on source systems by loading into QVDs once
  • Data Transformation Layer
    • QVDs can enable a structured ETL process with a clear separation between each step

Optimized Load

These actions will break optimization and result in a standard load

  • Concatenating fields together
  • Applying functions to fields during the load, like as Date(), Upper(), or Num()
  • Using WHERE clauses to filter the data
  • Using MAPPING loads

Use trial and error to determine if an optimized load is broken when doing anything other than a standard LOAD * FROM QVD