Alteryx export to Excel dataset breaks dynamic pivot tables

Question

Hi all,

I have an excel workbook in which I have set up pivot tables based off raw data exported there through Alteryx's output data tool. The tool overwrites the sheet the data lives in with the new data run. That bit all works as expected, however when I try to refresh the pivots based on that data, the data types are causing the pivots to break. The formatting and fields of the pivots are preserved via the dynamic name range I have created for the pivots that update based on the size of the exported data, however none of the company names or values populate in the pivot. My assumption is I need to use specific data types with the select tool before the export, but I cannot figure out which data types are needed to allow excel to ingest the data properly.

Thanks in advance.

Ozymandius · Accepted Answer

I have determined the root cause of the issue to be a Period field, where the year YYYY is concatenated to the Month MM, so March is 202403. When in excel, this field cannot be interpreted correctly and causes a filter in the pivot to break, if you tried to export it as a text field. Exporting instead as a number immediately corrected this issue