Alteryx is data wrangling software commonly deployed with other applications like Spotfire and Tableau. This category will contain articles on Alteryx best practices, tips, tricks, and learnings. I am a new Alteryx user and will post as my skills develop.
Last week, I wrote a blog post on how to fix query timeouts in Alteryx, and part of that solution involved using Detour tools. But, Detour tools are so useful that I thought they deserved their own post. Read on to learn more about how to improve your Alteryx development with Detour tools.
Read More »Speed Up Alteryx Development With Detour Tools
Last week, I built a large workflow while querying a subset of the data. With the workflow complete, I need to “open ‘er up”. However, doing so resulted in time-out errors. The query was so large it couldn’t complete. Transactional finance data….am I right??? I came up with two ways to solve this problem. Read on to learn how to fix query timeouts in Alteryx.
Read More »How to Fix Query Timeouts in Alteryx
This week, I’m going to share the three tools that start and end every Alteryx workflow I build in order to drive consistency and functionality.
Read More »3 Tools to Start & End Every Alteryx WorkflowI’ve learned a whole lot with Alteryx over the last two years, but I haven’t done much with or from the Alteryx Gallery, until now. I didn’t even realize how much you could easily access from the File menu. And that is a travesty because it’s super easy to find and add new Alteryx tools, and there are a ton of great tools out there. That’s why this post is going to show you how to download tools and templates from the Alteryx Gallery via the File menu. Read on to learn more.
Read More »Find & Add New Alteryx Tools
Using a workflow output as an input in the same workflow can be tricky. How do you make sure the output is completely written before being used as an input? A few months ago, I showed how the CReW macro tool, Parallel Block Until Done, can be used to control the order of operations in a workflow so that the output is fully written before the input is used. The CReW macro creator, Mark Frisch, reached out to me recently to tell me that my solution wasn’t wrong, but that there was a simpler way to achieve the same task. He bestowed some sage Alteryx wisdom upon me, and now I want to share it with you. Thanks Mark! Read on to learn more.
Read More »Using An Output as An Input in Alteryx
There have been several occasions when I have thought a particular topic wasn’t important enough to write about. But, some of my simplest posts have been the most popular. That’s the theme for this one. More specifically, I want to draw your attention to a few settings in the Runtime tab that might speed up your workflow or development cycle.
Read More »Runtime Settings To Make Workflows Run FasterLast week, I wrote a post showing how the Auto Field tool could be used to reduce the size of data sets. This week, I’m going to show how the same tool can be used to programmatically remove columns with zeros or nulls. This can also help reduce the size of your data sets and get rid of columns. Read on to learn how.
Read More »Remove Columns with Zeros or Nulls from Alteryx Workflows
I love that I can run huge amounts of data thru Alteryx. However, I also have to think about how much data I’m going to take from Alteryx and push to a BI application like Spotfire or PowerBI. As a general rule, less is more. Now, you may think you can’t do anything to reduce the size of your data set without cutting columns or rows, but that’s not true. Read on to learn two quick tricks to materially reduce the size of your data set.
Read More »How to Reduce the Size of an Alteryx Data Set
In our last sprint, the AAET team worked up a series of Alteryx workflows for our annual planning process that combines forecast and actual data. It’s a massive data set that pulls from a new forecasting database, so we are beginners with this data. One of my coworkers, Jack Stewart, showed me an Alteryx hack he uses with Cross Tab tools to ensure the granularity of the data is what he thinks it is. As I took over his workflows, this hack saved me multiple times when I didn’t realize records had been duplicated. Read on to learn a new Alteryx trick!
Read More »Alteryx Hack For Ensuring Data Granularity
Have you ever experienced the problem of Alteryx hanging when saving? You just want to save your work and go to happy hour, but it’s stuck at the validation phase. There is a reason for it and a way around it. Read on to learn this handy pro tip.
Read More »Is Saving in Alteryx Taking Forever????