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Episode1

Three files, one table

Step-by-step manual

01The business question

Q-Expert Distributors receives its sales as one file per month: Sales_2025_01.csv, Sales_2025_02.csv and Sales_2025_03.csv. The team wants all of them in one table, and next month's file should load without anyone touching the script.

02Before you start

Unzip the episode package. You need data/Sales_2025_01.csv … Sales_2025_03.csv and, for the last step, data/Raw/Sales_2025_01.qvd … _03.qvd.
Episode 1 starts from an empty project, so there is no start.qep to import. From episode 2 on, each package brings the project as the previous episode left it.
In Qlik, create a folder data connection called QXDistributors that points to the data folder you unzipped. The script reads every file through it. Inside that data folder, also create the folder Transform/_QVS: Q-Expert's script files go there (see Check your result).
Want to look inside the files first? Q-Explorator, the Q-Fábrica team's desktop tool, opens CSV, Excel, Parquet and QVD files so you can see their content and quality before you model.

03Step by step

1
Create the project

Click New Project in the top bar. Name it Q-Expert Distributors and click Create Project. Every model starts on a clean canvas.

Figure 1.1 — Create the project
2
Say where the files live

Open Project Settings → Source Paths. Add a mapping with the variable name vPathRaw and the folder QXDistributors, so the row reads vPathRaw = lib://QXDistributors/. In the same tab, set vTxfPath to lib://QXDistributors/Transform/: the work QVDs and the script files Q-Expert splits out live there, under the same connection.

Note
The path lives in one variable, not in every LOAD. When the files move, you change one line.

Figure 1.2 — Say where the files live
3
Set the project's number formats

These files use a dot for decimals and a comma for thousands. Click $(x) in the top bar and, on the Predefined tab, set:
- ThousandSep ,
- DecimalSep .
- MoneyThousandSep ,
- MoneyDecimalSep .
- MoneyFormat $ #,##0.00;-$ #,##0.00
Note
A project copies Q-Expert's formats (Settings → Formats) when it is created and keeps its own from then on. Changing Settings later only affects new projects, so set this project's formats here.

Figure 1.3 — Set the project's number formats
4
Add the project variables

Switch to the Project tab and add, each with the + button:
- vEnvironment = PROD
- vBaseCurrency = COP (episode 4 uses it)
Then click Save.

Figure 1.4 — Add the project variables
5
Add the three sales files

In the Library, click Add Files and pick the three Sales_2025_0N.csv files. Q-Expert sees the same columns in all of them and groups them under one pattern, Sales_*.csv.

Figure 1.5 — Add the three sales files
6
Drag the group onto the canvas

Drag the Sales_*.csv group header onto the canvas. One RAW node reads every month: the three files of today and the ones still to come.

Figure 1.6 — Drag the group onto the canvas
7
Name it as a work table

Select the node. On the Config tab, type tmp_SalesRaw as the table name and press Tab.

Figure 1.7 — Name it as a work table
8
Say why, in a comment

On the Info tab, write in Comments: Sales arrive as one file per month; the wildcard reads every month, including next month's file. It goes into the script right above the LOAD.

Note
Write comments in the language your team reads the script in. The course keeps the script in English.

Figure 1.8 — Say why, in a comment
9
Generate the script

Click Generate Syntax and open the Flow_1 tab. One LOAD with an asterisk in the path, read through the variable: FROM [$(vPathRaw)Sales_*.csv]. Next month's file just works.

Figure 1.9 — Generate the script
10
The same idea with QVD files

Add the three files from data/Raw/. They are QVDs, so the Library makes a second group, Sales_*.qvd, next to Sales_*.csv. Dragged onto the canvas, it reads them with (qvd). The course continues with the CSV files, so leave this group in the Library.

Note
These three QVDs were made with Q-Explorator, which converts CSV, TXT and Excel files into QVD.

Figure 1.10 — The same idea with QVD files

04Check your result

The canvas has one RAW node, tmp_SalesRaw, with 11 of 11 columns: SaleID, SaleDate, CustomerID, ProductID, SalespersonID, BranchID, Quantity, UnitPrice, DiscountPct, Currency and Channel.
Run the script in Qlik: tmp_SalesRaw has 330 rows, 110 from each month.
Q-Expert splits the script in two: _Main, the only part you paste into Qlik, and Flow_1.qvs, a file that _Main reads with MUST_INCLUDE. Both should match the ones below, except the date in the header and a // Q-Expert · Ref … line with your own reference.

_Main

Paste into Qlik

This is the only script you paste into Qlik Sense: open the app's Data load editor, replace its content with this and reload. Each $(MUST_INCLUDE=…) line reads one of the files below in its place, so the rest of the model never goes into the editor.

Show script · 42 lines

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Description [MAIN]:
		
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Author:	The Q-Fábrica team - 
	Date:	[2026-11-02]
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Changes
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Author		Date		Detail
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Copyright © Q-Expert Distributors.
	Q-Expert Qlik Developer Framework. www.qfabrica.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

SET ThousandSep=',';
SET DecimalSep='.';
SET MoneyThousandSep=',';
SET MoneyDecimalSep='.';
SET MoneyFormat='$ #,##0.00;-$ #,##0.00';
SET TimeFormat='hh:mm:ss';
SET DateFormat='YYYY-MM-DD';
SET TimestampFormat='YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss';
SET MonthNames='Jan;Feb;Mar;Apr;May;Jun;Jul;Aug;Sep;Oct;Nov;Dec';
SET LongMonthNames='January;February;March;April;May;June;July;August;September;October;November;December';
SET DayNames='Mon;Tue;Wed;Thu;Fri;Sat;Sun';
SET LongDayNames='Monday;Tuesday;Wednesday;Thursday;Friday;Saturday;Sunday';
SET FirstWeekDay=0;
SET BrokenWeeks=1;
SET ReferenceDay=4;
SET FirstMonthOfYear=1;

LET vExecutionDate = Timestamp(Now(), 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss');

SET vTxfPath  = 'lib://QXDistributors/Transform/';
SET vPathRaw = 'lib://QXDistributors/';
SET vEnvironment = 'PROD';   // PROD, QA or DEV
SET vBaseCurrency = 'COP';   // Currency every amount is converted to

$(MUST_INCLUDE=$(vTxfPath)_QVS/Flow_1.qvs);

Flow_1.qvs

File · read by MUST_INCLUDE

Not pasted: saved as a file. On the Flow_1 tab of Generate Syntax, Export downloads Flow_1.qvs (Deploy writes every tab into a folder at once). Put it in lib://QXDistributors/Transform/_QVS/Flow_1.qvs, the Transform/_QVS folder inside your QXDistributors folder. If the file is not there, the reload stops with an error: that is what MUST_INCLUDE is for.

Show script · 33 lines

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Description [Flow_1]:
		
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Author:	The Q-Fábrica team - 
	Date:	[2026-11-02]
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Changes
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Author		Date		Detail
	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Copyright © Q-Expert Distributors.
	Q-Expert Qlik Developer Framework. www.qfabrica.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

// -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Sales arrive as one file per month; the wildcard reads every month, including next month's file.
[tmp_SalesRaw]:
    LOAD
        SaleID,
        SaleDate,
        CustomerID,
        ProductID,
        SalespersonID,
        BranchID,
        Quantity,
        UnitPrice,
        DiscountPct,
        Currency,
        Channel
    FROM [$(vPathRaw)Sales_*.csv] (txt, delimiter is ',', embedded labels);

05Why this way

tmp_ says it is a work table. tmp_SalesRaw is a step on the way to Fact_Sales, not part of the final model. Every tmp_ table is dropped before the script ends (episode 6).
Wildcard or loop? The wildcard is enough when every file has the same shape and nothing has to be done per file. Episode 2 needs to know which month each row came from, and that calls for a loop.
Paths and formats in variables. The script never hard-codes a folder or depends on the locale of the Qlik server that runs it. That is what makes it move from development to production unchanged.
Field names in PascalCase, in English, without spaces. Only keys will share a name across tables later on; anything else would create a synthetic key.

06What comes next

Episode 2: the same files, but we need to know which month each row came from.

Watch the episode video Next episode →

Before you model

Q-Explorator is the Q-Fábrica team's desktop tool to explore QVD, CSV, Excel and Parquet files and to convert CSV, TXT and Excel files into QVD. Open the files of each episode in it to see their content and quality first.

About Q-Explorator

01The business question

02Before you start

03Step by step

Create the project

Say where the files live

Set the project's number formats

Add the project variables

Add the three sales files

Drag the group onto the canvas

Name it as a work table

Say why, in a comment

Generate the script