I’m working on a calculation for “Second to Max Date” in order to compare the Max Date (as a most recent forecast) to the Second to Max Date (as the second to most recent forecast).

I’m interested in avoiding using more than one FIXED statement for performance reasons on the server as content is replicated to clients, as there is a hunch that nesting FIXED LOD is causing Tableau server crashes for our team.

The current setup is as follows:

**Exclude Max Date = **IF [Forecast Date] != { FIXED : MAX([Forecast Date]) } THEN [Forecast Date] END

**Second to Max Date = ** { FIXED : MAX(IF [Forecast Date] != { FIXED : MAX([Forecast Date]) } THEN [Forecast Date] END) }

In this case, the results produced are as expected. Forecasts do not occur at regular intervals so we cannot simply subtract a number of months from the original Max Date. However, we are looking for an alternative that does NOT use two FIXED LOD.

The value must satisfy the condition of being able to be set as a “Value when workbook opens” within a parameter “Comparison Date” that holds Forecast Date values, noting the default set value will then be the Second to Max Date.

We cannot use table calculations as they are unable to feed the default parameter “Value when workbook opens” (at least to my knowledge).

Any assistance or insight as to whether an alternative is possible is appreciated. Thank you!