Input Source File - Shorten Field Length

CherylWalsh71

I am connecting to an SQL Server. My dataset is very large (over 33M). I have applied some "WHERE" clauses to made the data set smaller and chosen only fields that I need in the SQL Query.  

Is there a way to change the character size of a field as well?  Some fields are set to 300 Characters but none of the records actually meet this limit - it is more like 50 - 100 characters.

I am looking for a way to speed up the query process and thought this might help.  I know I can limit the characters downstream but was hoping to do it upon loading/input to save time in the initial load.

Thanks

DataNath

Hey @CherylWalsh71, you could try adding the left() function to restrict the size of your incoming fields. I don't have any massive fields to demonstrate with. However, here's a little demo where I'm just taking the first character of a few fields:

Table as standard:

To try and reduce incoming data a bit I have used a TOP () restriction, which can also just be done by using the 'Record Limit' part of the Input Data configuration. I have also just took the first X characters of each field using Left(<Field>, X), and trimmed the DateTime down to Year:

This solution of course relies on the fact that you want to bring your data into Alteryx. However, as mentioned by @DanielG, you could use the In-DB palette instead (depending on your use case). These tools don't actually stream any data into Alteryx but essentially use your tool configurations to compile a SQL query that is then sent off to the DB when you hit run. In comparison to standard tools, the In-DB palette has reduced options/functionality and isn't as user-friendly/intuitive imo but can be good for performance if you'd otherwise be streaming in large amounts of data.