Why would MAX( ... BY ... ) give different results for different users?

Question

Hi.  I am a BI Administrator.  I was advising a BI Content Author on filtering an analysis to pick only the maximum of a column where 3 other  columns are a unique grouping; specifically, to pick the maximum Clause Version per combined Contract No, Clause No, and Org Name.

I had her add a column like this:

MAX( "Clause Version" BY "Contract No", "Clause No", "Org Name").

Then I had her filter the new column like this, placing the filter below all the other filters:

MAX( "Clause Version" BY "Contract No", "Clause No", "Org Name") = "Clause Version"

We tested it by filtering for a contract that we knew had multiple versions for one of the clauses.  When I ran the analysis, it worked perfectly — the results had only one version per contract, clause and org.  When she ran it, however, all the versions continued to appear in the results.  In case it was pulling from her cache, she tried refreshing the results — but the results did not change — then tried disabling cache in the Advanced tab.  Still the results did not change.  Still I was seeing only 1 version and she continued to see multiple.

Does anyone know why this would happen, that MAX( … BY … ) would give different results for different users?

Thanks.

Gianni Ceresa · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Did you look at the generated queries? And while there also at the LSQL query? If the LSQL queries between your test and her test are exactly the same, then the physical query should give you answer on what is wrong.

It is possible that there are extra filters added to the query based on the roles of users, and those change the behavior of the query.

But the answer is in a single place: the physical SQL queries.