Tool Mastery

The Filter Tool, which is part of the Preparation tool category, separates your data into 2 output streams, True and False, based on a basic filter or custom expression.

The Multi-Row Formula Tool functions much like the normal Formula Tool but adds the ability to reference multiple rows of data within one expression. Say, for example, someone was on the ground floor of a house and had a Formula Tool. They would only be able to talk to the people also on the ground floor. If they had a Multi-Row Formula Tool, though, they would also be able to talk to the people upstairs, in the attic, and in the basement as well.

The Multi-Field Formula Tool offers the same functionality as the Formula Tool, but offers the added benefit of applying a function across multiple fields of data all at once.  Gone are the  days of writing the same function for multiple fields.\n Say there are four fields with dollar signs ($) that need to be removed. It could be done with a Formula Tool and a function written for each field:

Far more than just a window to your data, the Browse Tool has a catalog of features to best view, investigate, and copy/save data at any checkpoint you place it.  That introspection to your data anywhere in your blending gives valuable feedback that often speeds workflow development and makes it easier to learn tools by readily visualizing their transforms. Be equipped, and browse through the catalog of useful applications below!

Unlike a snowflake, it is actually possible for duplicates exist when it comes to data. To distinguish whether or not a record in your data is unique or a duplicate we have an awesome tool called the Unique Tool that will actually turn your data into a unique snowflake.

The Select Tool within the Alteryx Designer is the equivalent of your High School Sweetheart. Always there when you needed them and helped you find out more about yourself. The Select Tool can do exactly this by showing you the data type and structure of your data, but it also gives you the flexbility to change aspects of your dataset.

Data blending, transformation and cleansing..oh my! Whether you're looking to apply a mathematical formula to your numeric data, perform string operations on your text fields (like removing unwanted characters), or aggregate your spatial data (among many other things!), the Formula Tool is the place to start.  With the examples provided below, you should be on your way to harnessing the many functions of the Formula Tool:

The Arrange Tool allows you to manually transpose and rearrange your data. It can be used to combine multiple fields into a single target field.

The Neural Network Tool in Alteryx implements functions from the nnet package in R to generate a type of neural networks called multilayer perceptrons. By definition, neural network models generated by this tool are feed-forward (meaning data only flows in one direction through the network) and include a single Hidden Layer. In this Tool Mastery, we will review the configuration of the tool, as well as what is included in the Object and Report outputs.

The Association Analysis Tool allows you to choose any numerical fields and assesses the level of correlation between those fields. You can either use the Pearson product-moment correlation, Spearmen rank-order correlation, or Hoeffding's D statistics to perform your analysis. You can also have the option of doing an in-depth analysis of your target variable in relation to the other numerical fields. After you’ve run through the tool, you will have two outputs:

The Date Filter tool is a very tailored version of the Filter tool with an enhanced GUI for date picking.

The Generate Rows Tool, which is part of the Preparation tool category, creates new rows of data based on a user defined loop expression. It is especially useful when creating sequences of numbers or dates. \n  \n For example, let's say you have a dataset with products that aren't sold very often (not every month) but you would like to create records for every month and fill in quantity and amount as zero for reporting purposes. You can use the Generate Rows Tool to take the earliest month on the dataset, increment that by one month (generating a new row each time) until it has reached the latest month or the month you are in.  

You've gotten your long dataset and you want to combine it with another dataset for additional information. Your dataset is nice and clean. Everything is formatted the same, no null values... The whole package. You open up the data to join to and right away you see a ton of clean up that needs to happen: nulls to replace, strings to format appropriately, extra characters, white space, the list goes on. You launch the Designer, and while fast and accurate, you have to set up a new Multi-Field Formula Tool for each situation you need to fix. If only there was a single tool that did it all.

This article is part of the Tool Mastery Series, a compilation of Knowledge Base contributions to introduce diverse working examples for Designer Tools. Here we’ll delve into uses of the Record ID Tool on our way to mastering the Alteryx Designer

Often times in data preparation, the need for order in your records will arise. When that situation occurs, the Sort Tool has your back. It’s just that sort of tool. Effortlessly arranging your records – be it alphabetical, numeric, or chronological in order – while not quite a mind-numbingly complex operation, has ample utility. Sorting your records upstream of many tools can even optimize processing time. The fairly simple use cases below are techniques that frequently pop up in the data blending trenches:

The Sample Tool allows you selectively pass patterns, block excerpts, or samples of your records (or groups of records) in your dataset: the first N, last N, skipping the first N, 1 of every N, random 1 in N chance for each record to pass, and first N%. Using these options can come in the clutch pretty often in data preparation – that’s why you’ll find it in our Favorites Category, and for good reason. While a great tool to sample your data sets, you can also use it for: