How can I dynamically go down a specific path of a workflow?

Question

I have a workflow that currently processes csv files and a separate workflow for xlsx files. I want to combine the two workflows into one and dynamically process csv files and xlsx files in a specific way depending on the file I receive.

We'll start with a directory tool and if the file is a csv, we'll do some processing, but if the file is an xlsx file we'll do some other processing. I tried using a filter to accomplish this.

My current issue is if I get a csv file for example, then the csv branch of the filter works fine, but the xlsx branch errors out. This is because the xlsx branch is expecting to process certain fields (e.g. adding a formula to make a specific field uppercase) that haven't been provided (since the xlsx branch has no data). The issue is persistent in the reverse case as well.

What can I do to fix this? I've heard about the detour tool, but not sure how to make it work in my case, since I want to schedule workflows in Alteryx Gallery and it seems the detour tool works best with user input. Guidance would be appreciated!

Yoshiro_Fujimori · Answer

Hi @fiddycodes ,

If the data formats from two data types are mostly the same,

I guess you can safely process multiple file types in separate flow as below.

Any thoughts?

Workflow

I borrowed the above Macro (in red) from the below article.

How To: Import Multiple Excel Sheets or a Specific Excel Range into a Workflow

Output

Multiple Sheets Multple Excel Files.yxzp

fiddycodes · Answer

I would like to combine them because we want to avoid creating multiple workflows that do basically the same thing, the main difference in the workflows is the macro attached to the directory tool. There are other minor differences, but this is the main thing.

For CSVs:

After the directory tool comes a macro that combines all the csv files in a directory together

@Yoshiro_Fujimori

For xlsx:

After the directory tool comes a macro that combines all the xlsx files in a directory together, even if a spreadsheet has multiple tabs (which is a common scenario).

We want to be able to feed in a directory and have the workflow go towards the csv or xlsx route depending on the file type.

Yoshiro_Fujimori · Answer

@fiddycodes ,

Could you explain the reason why you want to combine the two workflow?

If they are doing different things, I would keep them separate, in terms of "Modularity" in software design.

Is there any reason why you have to combine them?

Depending on the reason, we may be able to propose some solution.