Skip output file if there are no records

Question

Hi. Is there a way to skip/disable an output file if there are no records?

One of the output files of my workflow is an error report after a set of joins. Anything not joined goes to the error report. I want the workflow to only output the files with the joined records if the non-joined record count = 0. One less .xlsx to open and review would save me a significant amount of time for a series of workflows that run on schedule and drop files into my email inbox on Monday morning.

Thank you!

AshBlue20 · Answer

Thank you both for your responses.

I should clarify. Here is an example of what is happening. My goal is to evaluate the record count out of the L anchor of the join tool. If record count (from L)=0, then don't output the outputerrors.xlsx file.

RobertOdera · Answer

Hi, @AshBlue20

Kindly consider the below for guidance - I hope you find it helpful

Scenario = error records exist, i.e., [count] !=0

Scenario = error records do not exist, i.e., [count] =0

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Yoshiro_Fujimori · Answer

Hi @AshBlue20 ,

Your case sounds suitable for Test tool or Expect Records tool.

Have you considered using one of them?

https://help.alteryx.com/20223/designer/test-tool

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Community-Gallery/CReW-Expect-Records/ta-p/984111

In case of Test Tool, you can configure so that an error message is output to the log

when the output data has different number of rows from the expected number.

You can make a separate workflow which monitors the folder for Log files to search for the error message:

The test "Record Count Test" failed

I hope this may be of some help.