Question & Answer
Question
User opens an Excel spreadsheet (.XLS file), and logs onto Controller. User can run/refresh by clicking either F9 or F10 on their keyboard.
- What is the difference between an F9 and an F10 refresh, inside the Controller Excel link?
Cause
Customer may be experiencing performance problems, and therefore is looking at ways to speed up the running of reports.
Answer
At a simple level, the difference is:
At a more complex level, the differences are explained inside separate IBM Technote #1508826.
- F9 refreshes all sheets inside the entire spreadsheet file (for example Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3)
- F10 typically only refreshes the current sheet (the one which the end user is currently viewing)
- However, sometimes F10 will refresh more than one sheet. This occurs if the current sheet contains formulae that are referenced in other sheets (of the workbook). This will cause those other sheet's formulae to also be recalculated.
At a more complex level, the differences are explained inside separate IBM Technote #1508826.
Performance Example:
Imagine a scenario where a customer has a large/complex XLSX file (Excel link spreadsheet report). The customer is trying to find a way to speed up the running of the report, and is therefore comparing the timings between using F9 and F10.
The customer may find that:
- If the current sheet (for example 'Sheet2') is the biggest one (containing the most formulae), then the speed difference between using F10 and F9 may be small.
- However, for most situations, F10 is probably significantly quicker than F9
- If the formula from the current sheet are heavily used in other sheets, then this means that more formulae are calculated.
- In other words, formulae are run on sheets different from the current sheet (causing a longer report execution time)
- Depending on the data that needs to be calculated, Microsoft SQL may produce a different SQL execution plan. Therefore the time taken may vary unexpectedly (unpredictable).
- The difference in time take (between using F9 and F10) may not be as large as expected, because some 'internal' report operations are common to both the F10 and F9 refresh functions.
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
12 February 2019
UID
swg21391843