Downloading content

This page describes downloading content — visualizations or data — from Looker.

To download content, you must be given the download_with_limit or download_without_limit permission by a Looker admin.

The process and options for downloading content and formatting downloaded content vary based on whether you're downloading from a Look or an Explore, from a dashboard, or from a merged results query.

Downloading data from a Look or an Explore

To download data from a Look or an Explore page, select the gear menu in the upper right and select Download.

Looker displays the Download window, where you can name and format your download.

The following sections will walk you through each field in the Download window:

Format

Downloads to formats that use the renderer (PNG and PDF) will use results from Production Mode. If your download is in another format, the download will show results from whichever mode — development or production — you are in.

Data can be downloaded from Looks and Explores in the following file formats:

  • TXT (tab-separated values)
  • Excel spreadsheet (Excel 2007 or later)
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • HTML
  • Markdown
  • PNG (image of visualization)

While choosing your data format for downloading, if you don't see the HTML or PNG (image of visualization) options (for Looks), talk to your Looker admin about installing the appropriate version of the Chromium renderer for your Looker instance.

For JSON format, Looker uses field labels as its rendered value in its JSON output. See the Change in JSON formatting Community post for more information about how Looker renders fields in JSON format.

Transposed tables will render in PNG downloads only.

For Looker developers, if you are in Development Mode, data downloads in most file formats query your model as it is in Development Mode. PDF and PNG file formats are the exception; data downloads in those file formats always query your model as if it is in Production Mode.

Filename

You can enter a filename for the download or use the default filename that is pre-populated in the field. Looker will automatically append the appropriate file extension based on your selection in the Format field.

Results

In the Results section, choose whether you want visualization settings applied to your TXT, Excel, CSV, JSON, HTML, or Markdown data download.

If you choose With visualization options applied, Looker applies some of the visualization settings to your download. Any of the following settings in the Plot, Series, and Formatting menus that are configured for the visualization will be applied to the data download:

Conditional formatting will display in Excel deliveries of Looks and Explores with table chart visualizations only if the Along a scale Rule is applied.

Some visualization settings are not applied to downloaded results. For example:

  • Custom header text color and background color are not applied to downloaded results, except for PNG files.
  • For results tables with pivots and multiple measures, each pivot value is repeated across columns rather than represented as one merged column. HTML and PNG downloads are an exception, so the merged column is preserved.
  • When you download from a dashboard, the dashboard tile title is not included in downloaded results.
  • The Totals and Row Totals values are included in downloaded results, but the respective row and columns are not labeled.

Columns in table charts that have been manually rearranged will appear in their original order in the download if the query includes any of the following elements:

If you choose As displayed in the data table, visualization options won't be applied and the download will appear like the data table in the Data section of the Look or Explore.

Data values

In the Data values section, choose how you want the downloaded query results to appear:

  • If you choose Unformatted, Looker does not apply any special formatting of your query results, such as rounding long numbers or adding special characters your Looker developers may have put in place. This is often preferred when data is being fed into another tool for processing.
  • If you choose Formatted, the appearance of the data will be similar to the Explore experience in Looker, although some features (such as linking) aren't supported by all file types. For example, any formatting applied with the html parameter won't be applied to TXT, CSV, Excel, or JSON downloads.

Number of rows and columns to include

You can choose how much data you want to download as follows:

  • Current result table: Number of rows that are specified by the row limit of your content.
  • All results: All results that are returned by the query. Before selecting this option, see the All Results section on this page.
  • Custom: A custom number of rows. Users who have download_with_limit permissions are limited to 5,000 rows. The limit for other users is typically 100,000.

All results

When you select Run in a Look or an Explore, Looker checks your permissions and determines whether the complexity of the query and the database dialect will allow the entire query to be downloaded. If you have the permissions (for results over a set limit) and if Looker determines that your entire query can be downloaded, the All results option will be available in the Download window.

The All results option is typically disabled for queries that do any of the following:

Even when the All results option is available, you should still use caution when downloading all results. Some queries are very large, containing thousands or millions of rows, which can overwhelm most spreadsheet programs — or even your Looker instance.

If the All results option is unavailable, you can use the Custom option to specify the maximum number of rows that are allowed with your permissions.

Streaming query results

Streaming refers to Looker's ability to process data in chunks, rather than all at once. If Looker can stream a result set, then unlimited downloads are possible. The All results option relies on Looker's ability to stream results, and All results won't be available if streaming results isn't possible.

Looker streams downloaded results to all formats except rendered formats (HTML, PNG).

In addition to the format limitations, there are two cases where streaming is not possible:

  1. Table calculations: Table calculations cannot be streamed. Therefore, to download unlimited results for a query, you must remove table calculations from the query.
  2. Database limitations: Some databases cannot stream if pivots are included in the query. For these databases, you must remove pivots to download unlimited results. Some databases can't stream any results, which means that unlimited downloads are not possible.

These databases support streaming:

Dialect Supported?
Actian Avalanche
Yes
Amazon Athena
Yes
Amazon Aurora MySQL
Yes
Amazon Redshift
Yes
Apache Druid
No
Apache Druid 0.13+
No
Apache Druid 0.18+
No
Apache Hive 2.3+
Yes
Apache Hive 3.1.2+
Yes
Apache Spark 3+
Yes
ClickHouse
Yes
Cloudera Impala 3.1+
Yes
Cloudera Impala 3.1+ with Native Driver
Yes
Cloudera Impala with Native Driver
Yes
DataVirtuality
Yes
Databricks
Yes
Denodo 7
Yes
Denodo 8
Yes
Dremio
Yes
Dremio 11+
Yes
Exasol
Yes
Firebolt
Yes
Google BigQuery Legacy SQL
Yes
Google BigQuery Standard SQL
Yes
Google Cloud PostgreSQL
Yes
Google Cloud SQL
Yes
Google Spanner
No
Greenplum
Yes
HyperSQL
No
IBM Netezza
No
MariaDB
Yes
Microsoft Azure PostgreSQL
Yes
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Yes
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2008+
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2012+
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2017+
Yes
MongoBI
Yes
MySQL
Yes
MySQL 8.0.12+
Yes
Oracle
Yes
Oracle ADWC
Yes
PostgreSQL 9.5+
Yes
PostgreSQL pre-9.5
Yes
PrestoDB
Yes
PrestoSQL
Yes
SAP HANA
No
SAP HANA 2+
No
SingleStore
Yes
SingleStore 7+
Yes
Snowflake
Yes
Teradata
Yes
Trino
Yes
Vector
Yes
Vertica
Yes

These are the databases that support streaming with pivots applied:

Dialect Supported?
Actian Avalanche
Yes
Amazon Athena
Yes
Amazon Aurora MySQL
No
Amazon Redshift
Yes
Apache Druid
No
Apache Druid 0.13+
No
Apache Druid 0.18+
No
Apache Hive 2.3+
No
Apache Hive 3.1.2+
No
Apache Spark 3+
Yes
ClickHouse
No
Cloudera Impala 3.1+
Yes
Cloudera Impala 3.1+ with Native Driver
Yes
Cloudera Impala with Native Driver
Yes
DataVirtuality
No
Databricks
Yes
Denodo 7
No
Denodo 8
No
Dremio
No
Dremio 11+
No
Exasol
Yes
Firebolt
Yes
Google BigQuery Legacy SQL
Yes
Google BigQuery Standard SQL
Yes
Google Cloud PostgreSQL
Yes
Google Cloud SQL
No
Google Spanner
No
Greenplum
Yes
HyperSQL
No
IBM Netezza
Yes
MariaDB
No
Microsoft Azure PostgreSQL
Yes
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Yes
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2008+
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2012+
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server 2017+
Yes
MongoBI
No
MySQL
No
MySQL 8.0.12+
No
Oracle
Yes
Oracle ADWC
Yes
PostgreSQL 9.5+
Yes
PostgreSQL pre-9.5
Yes
PrestoDB
Yes
PrestoSQL
Yes
SAP HANA
No
SAP HANA 2+
No
SingleStore
Yes
SingleStore 7+
Yes
Snowflake
Yes
Teradata
Yes
Trino
Yes
Vector
Yes
Vertica
Yes

Remove all sorts from query

When you select All Results, you may also see the option to Remove all sorts from query. This option prevents sorting on your query before you download the results. Selecting this option may speed up your download, since sorting a query can be costly to performance for certain database types.

The Remove all sorts from query option is not supported for pivoted results.

Allow large results

When you are downloading a large result set in Looker using Google BigQuery as your database dialect and you select All Results, you may see the Allow large results option. This is because Google BigQuery has a maximum response size for query results, as described in the Write query results Google Cloud documentation topic. In order to download results that exceed the BigQuery maximum response size, Looker must perform a different process.

If you select Allow large results, the download process is affected as follows:

  • The allowLargeResults BigQuery option is set to true for the query.
  • The ORDER BY clauses in the query are removed.
  • The query will write to a PDT temp schema and requires permission to write to one.
  • The results of the query are stored in this temporary scratch schema under a random table name for one hour.

Download or open in browser

Once you've selected your options, you can select the Download button to download a file to your computer, or select Open in Browser to view the file in the browser.

Downloading data from a merged results query

To download merged results queries, you can save the query to a dashboard and then download the dashboard as a PDF or as a collection of CSV files. However, you must download the entire dashboard — you cannot download the data from just a single tile that is based on a merged results query.

Downloading data from a dashboard

To download the entire dashboard, select Download from the dashboard's three-dot menu.

This opens a dialog box that lets you select PDF or CSV as your download format.

Downloading a dashboard as a PDF

PDF downloads may not exactly match the layout or sizing of the dashboard as viewed within Looker.

You can download your entire dashboard as a PDF, which means you will get a PDF that displays the dashboard title, any dashboard filters, some or all dashboard tiles, and the time zone the dashboard was run in. The PDF will also include a timestamp that shows when the dashboard was downloaded.

Downloads in PDF format always return data from the model as it is in Production Mode, even if you are in Development Mode.

To download a dashboard as a PDF, follow these steps:

  1. Select PDF from the Format drop-down menu.

  2. Select an option from the Paper Size drop-down menu:

    The Fit Page to Dashboard option is the default; it sizes the PDF to the default width for dashboards (1260 px). Other paper size options size the PDF to match a standard paper size and fit all or part of the dashboard within it. Depending on the layout of the dashboard and the paper size selected, some PDF outputs may differ from the dashboard layout when viewed within Looker. For example, when the paper size selected is narrower than the dashboard, you may encounter issues with the spacing or other formatting and need to make some adjustments:

    • Large visualizations or groups of overlapping tiles may need to be resized to fit in the PDF.
    • Tiles that contain tables may not show all table columns in the PDF.
    • Tiles may be reduced in width to fit the PDF. Similarly, tiles that require scrolling in the Looker app may not expand to display all content.

    If you do not see the Paper Size option, talk to your Looker admin about installing the latest version of the Chromium renderer for your Looker instance.

  3. If you select something other than Fit Page to Dashboard in the Paper Size drop-down, an Orientation option appears. You can choose to orient the dashboard in portrait or landscape position.

  4. Select or leave unselected Expand tables to show all rows. If you select this option, for dashboard tiles that use table visualizations, the PDF will show all the rows that are available in the table visualization, not just the rows that are visible in the dashboard tile thumbnail. If you do not select this option, only the rows that are visible in the thumbnail without scrolling will appear in the PDF. Dashboard and query filters will still apply, as will visualization settings such as row limits, column limits, and settings that are made with the Limit Displayed Rows option.

    If the Expand Tables to Show All Rows option is selected, dashboard tiles that contain table visualizations may look slightly different in downloaded PDFs than they do inside Looker. The following differences may be noticeable in the PDF:

    • Customizations to background colors and font sizes are removed from column headers and subtotal rows.
    • If no custom theme is set, Tables appear in the white theme. Otherwise, the custom theme is applied when downloaded.
    • The sort icon does not appear on pivoted tables that were not manually sorted.
    • Tables with Size Columns to Fit enabled stretch to the full width of the tile.

    Additionally, for tables with more than 20,000 cells, the following differences may be noticeable in the PDF:

    If you do not see the Expand tables to show all rows option, talk to your Looker admin about installing the appropriate version of the Chromium renderer for your Looker instance.

  5. Select or leave unselected Arrange dashboard tiles in a single column. If you select this option, the PDF displays dashboard tiles in a single vertical column. If you do not select this option, the dashboard tiles appear as they are arranged in the dashboard.

  6. Select Open in Browser to see an image of the PDF in a new tab of your browser. From there, you can opt to download the PDF using your browser's controls.

  7. Select Cancel if you no longer want to download the dashboard.

  8. Select Download to initiate the download. A new tab in your browser will open, showing the status of your download.

If your Looker admin has enabled the Render Long Tables Labs feature and the Expand Tables to Show All Rows option is selected, tiles containing table visualizations may look slightly different in downloaded PDFs than they do inside Looker. To learn more about the differences, visit the Labs documentation page.

Downloading a dashboard as CSVs

You can download all the query tiles from your dashboard as a zipped collection of CSV files. Text tiles are not included in the ZIP file. To download your dashboard as a collection of CSV files, follow these steps:

  1. Select CSV from the Format drop-down menu.
  2. Select Cancel if you no longer want to download the dashboard.
  3. Select Download to initiate the download of your zipped CSV collection.

When you download a dashboard as CSV files, the options for formatting downloads, such as setting custom row limits or choosing all results, are unavailable. The row limits in the downloaded files correlate to the row limits on the corresponding tiles.

Looker generates zipped files using UTF-8 encoding. If the characters in your CSV filenames appear garbled, there may be a conflict between Looker's UTF-8 encoding and the default encoding of your machine's operating system or a third-party application. Looker suggests that you use a file extractor that recognizes UTF-8, such as 7-Zip, and ensure that any third-party applications are configured to support UTF-8.

Downloading data from dashboard tiles

You cannot download the data from dashboard tiles based on merged results queries, but the data from merged results tiles is included if you download a dashboard as a PDF or as a collection of CSV files.

To download the data from a dashboard tile, select the three-dot icon on the tile and select Download data:

This opens a dialog box with several options that are are similar to those for a Look or an Explore. Expand the Advanced data options menu to see all available options for your download:

Format

Data can be downloaded from dashboard tiles in the following formats:

  • TXT (tab-separated values)
  • Excel spreadsheet (Excel 2007 or later)
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • HTML
  • Markdown
  • PNG (image of visualization)

Depending on the format you select, some options in the Advanced data options menu may not be available.

If the HTML or PNG (image of visualization) options are missing, talk to your Looker admin about installing the appropriate version of the Chromium renderer for your Looker instance.

For JSON format, Looker uses field labels as its rendered value in its JSON output. See the Change in JSON formatting Community post for more information about how Looker renders fields in JSON format.

Transposed table visualizations will render in PDF and PNG downloads only.

Downloads in PNG format always return data from the model as it is in Production Mode, even if you are in Development Mode.

Results

In the Results section, choose whether you want visualization settings applied to your data download:

If you choose As displayed in the data table, visualization options will not be applied and the download will appear like the data table in the Data section of the Look or Explore.

Data values

In the Data values section, choose how you want the downloaded results to appear:

  • If you choose Formatted, the data will appear more similar to the Explore experience in Looker, although some features (such as linking) aren't supported by all file formats.
  • If you choose Unformatted, Looker does not apply any special formatting of your results, such as rounding long numbers or adding special characters your Looker developers may have put in place. This is often preferred when data is being fed into another tool for processing.

Number of rows and columns to include

You can specify how much data is included in your download in this section. In most tiles, this section of the download pop-up is named Number of rows to include; if the tile query contains any pivoted dimensions, this section is named Number of rows and columns to include. Your options include:

Considerations when using the All Results or Custom option

Looker checks your permissions and determines whether the complexity of the query and the database dialect will allow the entire query to be downloaded. If you have the permissions to download results over a set limit and if Looker determines that your entire query can be downloaded, the All Results option will be available in the Download window.

The All Results option is typically disabled for queries that:

Even when the All Results option is available, you should still use caution when downloading all results. Some queries are very large, containing thousands or millions of rows, which can overwhelm most spreadsheet programs — or even your Looker instance.

If the All Results option is unavailable, you can use the Custom option to specify the maximum number of rows allowed with your permissions. When you select Custom, you can specify a number of result rows to download. If your query contains any pivoted dimensions, you can also specify a number of columns to download.

For admins: Enabling downloading data for your Looker instance

Certain downloading options require that admins of customer-hosted Looker deployments have installed the appropriate version of the Chromium renderer. If your instance is Looker-hosted, Chromium is already installed.

The Managing business user features documentation page has important admin information about the download process:

To learn more about the permissions that must be assigned to users to enable them to download — specifically the download_with_limit and download_without_limit permissions — visit the Roles documentation page.

To reduce the rendering time of PDF downloads for dashboards that contain table visualizations with many rows, Looker admins can enable the Render Long Tables Labs feature.