CORE CONCEPTS

PART 1
AGENDA
• Alteryx Designer Overview
• Navigating the Designer
Interface
• Reading Data
• Data Types
• Writing Data
ALTERYX DESIGNER
OVERVIEW
WHAT IS ALTERYX?

4
SINGLE WORKFLOW FOR DATA
BLENDING, ANALYTICS, AND REPORTING
• A drag and drop visual workflow - no
programming required
• Seamless blending of data
• 60+ built-in tools for spatial and R-based
predictive analytics
• Simple creation of reports, data for visualization,
or analytics apps
• User productivity in hours not days

5
NAVIGATING
THE DESIGNER
I NTERFACE
COMPONENTS OF A WORKFLOW
To o l – s t e p i n t h e p r o c e s s
Anchors – input and/or output of a tool
Connections– controls the flow of data from one tool to the next
VIEWING DATA
Input (Data coming into tool) Output (Data coming out of tool)
VIEWING WORKFLOW MESSAGES
Messa ges - log of
last r un
– Three level of messages
– Click the tool name to select the
tool
– Click an input or output file
name opens it with the native
application
READING DATA
READING DATA
Overview
WHAT DATA CAN ALTERYX READ?

• Local and networked

files
• Databases
• We b s e r v i c e s
ALTERYX PARSES DATA INTO
TABLES
Field (Column)

Record (Row)
 HOW TO CONNECT TO A FILE
Local
– Path to file (absolute or relative)
– File must be unlocked

Networ k
– Log into network
– URI or Mapped Drive
READING DATA
Reading Data from Excel
 READING IN DATA FROM EXCEL
Excel Input Options Excel Input Pane

Select a sheet
– Sheet
– (Optional) Select cell range
Select a named range
– Named Range
Impor t only the list of sheet
names
– Sheet Name List
READING DATA
Reading Multiple Excel Sheets
CONFIGURING DYNAMIC INPUT
Connect Dynamic Input to list
of data sources (i.e. Input Data
reading in list of Sheet Names)

1 . C l i c k E d i t t o s e t Te m p l a t e
– Select an Excel workbook
– Choose a sheet

2. Select the Read a List of

Data Sources option

3. Set Field to Sheet Names

VISUALIZING DYNAMIC INPUT
READING DATA
Reading Data from CSV
 CSV FILE SETTINGS
• Path to file
• File Format CSV
• Delimiters
– Use characters for comma (,),
period (.), and pipe (|)
– For none use backslash zero (\0)
– For tab use backslash (\t)
• Set the max field length for
all fields, default is 254
• Set Ignore behavior
READING MULTIPLE FILES
Use wildcards modify the
PAT H f i e l d : san-francisco-*.csv matches

– asterisk (*) zero or more – san-francisco-2013.csv

– san-francisco-2012.csv
– san-francisco-2011.csv
los-angeles-county-201?.csv
matches
– question mark (?) zero or one
– los-angeles-county-2013.csv
– los-angeles-county-2012.csv
– los-angeles-county-2011.csv
KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION 1
INSTRUCTIONS
• W ith onl y one input data tool,
read in:
• Counties-2018.csv
• Counties-2019.csv

R E S U LT S

EXERCISE 23
READING DATA
Creating Your Own Dataset
TEXT INPUT
– Type your Headers and Values in
the Configuration Window
– Data Type and Size will be set
automatically based upon field
values
VIEWING DATA
VIEWING DATA
Browse
BROWSE

• Add a browse to
– See at-a-glance which fields contain
• NOT OK values
– (leading or trailing whitespace)
• NULL values
• EMPTY values
• OK values
– View a data profile for each field
– Open in new window
– Copy or save data
DATA TYPES
DATA TYPES
Overview
DATA TYPE GROUPS
• Strings
• Number s
• Dates
• Booleans
• Spatial Objects
DATE TYPE ENFORCEMENT
Va l u e s i n t h e s a m e f i e l d

Field

Record
Value
WHAT IS A STRING?
String
– String
– WString
– V_String
– V_WString
WHAT IS A NUMBER?
Number
– Byte
– Int16
– Int32
– Int64
– Fixed Decimal
– Float
– Double
WHAT IS A DATE?
Date
– Date
yyyy-mm-dd
– DateTime
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
– Time
hh:mm:ss
WHAT IS A BOOLEAN?
Boolean
– 0 = False
– 1 = True
WHAT IS A SPATIAL OBJECT?
Spatial Object
– Point
– Polyline
– Polygon
HOW ALTERYX SETS
TYPE AND SIZE ON IMPORT
D at a b a s e s
– Mapped to data type and size

Files
– Uses information from the file when possible
– Evaluates for Excel and dBase
– Sets fields from CSV, JSON, XML, etc, to String
DATA TYPES
Viewing Field Metadata
VIEW METADATA
IN RESULTS
Metadata
Pr oper ties:
– Field Name
– Data Type
– Field Size
– Source of Field
DATA TYPES
Change Type and Size Automatically
with Auto Field
 AUTO FIELD
Au t o m at i c a l l y s e t s
Ty p e s a n d S i ze s
– Sets Type and Size after
evaluating every value in
each selected field
– Every value will be
accommodated, no data will
be lost
– Can only update incoming
string fields
KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION 2
INSTRUCTIONS R E S U LT S
• W ith onl y one input data tool,
read in:
• Counties-2018.csv
• Counties-2019.csv
• Automaticall y Set Data Types
• Why aren’t Base Pay, Overtime Pay, Other
Pay, and Benefits fields numeric data types?
• Add a browse to view data profiles

EXERCISE 43
DATA TYPES
Manually Adjust Type and Size
with Select
SELECT
Ty p e
– Forced on column
– Non-conforming values
nulled
S i ze
– Numeric – in bytes
– String – length (i.e.
number of characters)
KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION 3
INSTRUCTIONS R E S U LT S
• W ith onl y one input data tool,
read in:
• Counties-2018.csv
• Counties-2019.csv
• Automaticall y Set Data Types
• Why aren’t Base Pay, Overtime Pay, Other Pay,
and Benefits fields numeric data types?
• Add a browse to view data profiles
• Manuall y Set Data Types
• Update fields mentioned in previous step to a
numeric data type

EXERCISE 46
WRITING DATA
WRITING DATA
Overview
WHAT FILE TYPES CAN WE
WRITE TO?
M o s t t y p e s , i n cl u d i n g :
▪ Alteryx DB Many Write Options, such as
▪ Excel ▪ Create a new or overwrite an
▪ Tableau (.tde, .hyper) existing file
▪ Qlik ▪ Append to an existing file
Ad ditional Repor ting types: ▪ Create batch reports (write separate
▪ PDF, file/sheet/tables based on criteria)
▪ Word, ▪ Email or post results
▪ Power Point,
▪ Etc…
WRITING DATA
Writing Data to CSV
 WRITING TO A CSV FILE
CSV Output Settings
▪ File Path
▪ Delimiters
– Use characters for comma (,),
period (.), and pipe (|)
– For none use backslash zero (\0)
– For tab use backslash (\t)
WRITING DATA
Writing Data to Excel
 WRITING TO AN EXCEL FILE
E xc e l O u t p u t S e t t i n g s
▪ File Path
• with Sheet Name, Named Range or Cell
Range
▪ Output Options
• Create New Sheet: creates a new sheet, but
does not overwrite an existing sheet
• Append to Existing Sheet: appends data to
an existing sheet so that the output consists
of new and previous data
• Overwrite Sheet (Drop): deletes the
selected sheet and writes data into a new
sheet with the selected name
• Overwrite File (Remove): deletes the
existing file and creates a new file
WRITING DATA
Writing Data to Multiple Files or Sheets
 WRITING MULTIPLE
Ta ke F i l e / Ta b l e N a m e
Fr o m F i e l d
Select Field
Choose Update Option
▪ Append Suffix to File/Table Name: Appends the selected field
name to the end of the name of the selected table.
▪ Prepend Prefix to File/Table Name: Prepends the selected field
name to the beginning of the name of the selected table.
▪ Change File/Table Name: Changes the file name to the selected
field name.
▪ Change Entire File Path: Changes the file name to the name of
the selected field. The name must be a complete file path. This
option can overwrite an existing file if a file exists in the full
path directory.
▪ For Excel files Table Name = Sheet Name
KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION 4
INSTRUCTIONS R E S U LT S
• W ith onl y one input data tool,
read in:
• Counties-2018.csv
• Counties-2019.csv
• Automaticall y Set Data Types
• Why aren’t Base Pay, Overtime Pay, Other Pay,
and Benefits fields numeric data types?
• Add a browse to view data profiles
• Manuall y Set Data Types
• Update fields mentioned in previous step to a
numeric data type
• Output to Excel, one sheet per
county

EXERCISE 56