Best practices for using ODBC

When setting up ODBC for the first time, begin by using the ThoughtSpot tsload for the initial data loads. This allows you to do more in-depth troubleshooting on any initial loading issues. After initial loads work properly, switch to ODBC to perform incremental loads.

You should create the parameterized SQL statement outside of ODBC. Using this method, the SQL statement can be sent to ThoughtSpot in batches by the ODBC driver, so you only have to update the memory itself. ETL tools have this implemented already (end users shouldn’t have to actually write the INSERT statement). But as a developer, you may be writing code that leverages the ODBC driver, so this tip can help you write your SQL for the best performance with the driver.

Data can be loaded into a table through multiple parallel connections. You can achieve this by splitting the input data into multiple parts. Then, load those individual parts through multiple parallel connections. You can use parallel loading even while loading to a single table or multiple tables at the same time.

When doing an incremental data load, note that the same UPSERT behavior that occurs in TQL also occurs. This means that if you import a row whose primary key matches an existing row, the existing row will be updated with the new values.