Tableau Error "ORA-00972: identifier is too long"

Question

I'm attempting to add data to Tableau from Oracle but am getting the following error: Error "ORA-00972: identifier is too long. This error is because I'm attempting to use a column that is longer than 30 characters. I know that one fix for the issue to change the name in Oracle to shorter than 30 characters. Unfortunately, I can't do this myself and it will take the team that can do this longer than I'd like to wait so I was wondering if there are any workarounds to this issue.

I have already read the following page from Tableau: https://kb.tableau.com/articles/issue/error-ora-00972?signin=0f7d7b7f02b5d408316cdf9e3b03eef

Answer 1

An ORA-00972 means you are using a database column or object identifier name that is too long, as @tejash said in the comments. When you see this error in Tableau specifically, it only happens because the dimension or measure in Tableau has been renamed to be longer than 30 characters. It's an easy mistake to make because the Tableau UI doesn't prohibit the longer name.

I know that one fix for the issue to change the name in Oracle to shorter than 30 characters. Unfortunately, I can't do this myself.

Because Oracle would have never let the name be longer than 30 characters when the column was created, there is nothing to fix in Oracle. You must fix it in Tableau and this is something you can fix yourself: rename the dimension or measure. There are a number of places this is possible and all follow the same principle (just different screen layouts) so I will describe the one I'm most familiar with. On any worksheet, on the left-hand pane where you see the dimensions and measures, right-click on the dimension or measure you need to rename and choose the "Rename" menu option.