Input Excel Spearsheet with variable tab name

Hello everyone,

I have an Excel Spreadsheet input that has a variable tab name.

For example: the tab name is "Orange_1234" for now, but in a month, it will be "Orange_5678". The "Orange" part is there to stay but the rest changes everytime I get a new spreadsheet.

Is there a way to tell the input tool to choose the first tab according to the first word its name contains? Or to simply make it choose the first sheet without specifying a name? Preferably without using the dynamic input tool.

Thanks in advance!

Eve

Input

Accepted answers

neilgallen

I got ya, @joshuaburkhow.

The trick here is once you use the input tool to get a list of sheet names, you then need to modify the file path so the dynamic input tool knows where to look. That's easily done with a formula tool. Just make sure your input has the "Output file name as field" option set to "full path"

Once connected to the dynamic input tool, make sure you have the 'action' set as "change entire file path"

dynamic input tool with sheet names.yxmd

All comments

Thableaus

Hi @EveM

With the Input Tool you could import the Sheet Names and use the Sample Tool to get the first Sheet, feeding then a Dynamic Input Tool.

That would be an option, but since you don't want to use the Dynamic Input Tool, I'm not sure if it could be helpful to you.

Cheers,

joshuaburkhow

Hi @EveM

Is there a reason you wouldn't want to use the dynamic input tool? This is a perfect use case for using this. I would bring in the list of tabs and use a filter to pick the one you want (ie begins with "Orange") and then run that tab through the dynamic input tool.

It would be really nice to use wildcards in the sheet name of an excel file like this:

2019-06-26 13_49_20-Window.png

I submitted the idea so if you want this you should star it here:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Add-the-ability-to-use-wildcards-on-sheet-names-for-excel-inputs/idi-p/432185#M8965

EveM

@joshuaburkhow Could you show me the workflow I would need to do to use the dynamic tool? Everytime I try to use it it doesn't work. Thanks!!!

EveM

@joshuaburkhow Could you show me the workflow I would need to do to use the dynamic tool? Everytime I try to use it it doesn't work. Thanks!!!

terry10

You can parse the sheet name from the Full Path with the regular expression ".*\|\|\|.(.*)\$."

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