Importing Tables from Excel

APuwalski

Most of the data that I want to import to Alteryx is in excel spread sheets in the form of tables. I have seen in some help sites that tables are supposed to be listed as "sheets" in Alteryx. However, this is not the case. How do I get Alteryx to recognize table names to import from excel. This seems like a pretty basic need.

Andrew_T-H

This can be done by selecting the "select a named range" option in the input tool but it requires you to set up the named range in excel first. This, as far as I can tell from testing it, isn't the same as simply naming your tables. It requires you to highlight the range of cells that your table sits in, and then from the formulas tab, click "create from selection", then tick the relevent boxes (I selected top row), then select OK. From there I had to then go into name manager and change the formula part to include the exact cell range of what I wanted alteryx to bring in. For me it brought each column in as a separate named option in name manager but I edited the first one and then named it something unique and then changed the range in the "refers to" box. 

In my opinion, this is a bit too much trouble than it's worth and if your table changes size with additional rows of data then you'd have to edit it each time in excel. 

I have a sheet that contains multiple tables that I use in an input in alteryx and the way I get around it is by having multiple select tools to only include the columns from the specific tables that I want. This also isn't perfect as the tables have the same column headings so it will automatically change the names of them when input. But the select tool can be used to just rename them again or you could use a dynamic rename tool if that was an issue. 

I don't believe alteryx really likes tables from excel though and much prefers ranges, but I agree, it would be a useful feature if the table name could be used in the input without any additional steps.

There might be other solutions to this though that exceed my expertise.