Ono-To-One Non-Manual Input into Text Input Tool

Question

Hello

I would like to input text into the Text Input Tool non-manually. There are various ways to do this (import, copy), but all these approaches perform some kind of conversion like removing empty rows. Now, what I want to have is a true one-to-one copy. The text is just a sequence of pure core ASCII characters and line breaks should be interpreted as separate rows in the Text Input Tool.

I know that I managed to that already in the past, but unfortunately cannot remember how.

Anybody can help me with this?

Markus2 · Answer

Hello Dan

First of all thanks for your answer. I have tested your workaround and it functions well 🙂

But there must be a way how to achieve that directly. I still have a workflow with a Text Input Tool containing complex text (meaning with empty rows, indentation, and so on). And some months ago, I managed to input this text into the tool somehow without manually putting it in line by line.

Maybe there is someone out there who can help to reconstruct that approach. Because of that, I leave the thread still open.

FYI:
Excel can be setup in a way that it don’t split text to columns when pasting. There are several instructions in the web showing how to do this.

Once again, many thanks for your contribution.
Markus

danilang · Answer

hi @Markus2

As you mentioned, it doesn't really matter how you paste data into the input tool.  Alteryx will always try to figure out what you mean and split the data accordingly.  Blank rows will be removed. Lines with tab characters will be split into multiple columns.  There doesn't seem to be any way to tell Alteryx to paste exactly what's in the clipboard, splitting text only on new lines. Alteryx isn't the only program that does this.  Pasting text with embedded tabs into Excel splits the text between cells.

A possible work around for this is to let Alteryx deal with the problem.  Before you paste complex text, double click on the first data cell in row 1, not the row or column header cells.  This puts that cell in edit mode.  Paste your text into this one cell.  Follow the text input tool with Text to Columns tool that splits to rows on newline "
".  Your complex text will be split to one row per line, blank lines will be preserved and embedded tabs will stay embedded.

Dan

Markus2 · Answer

Hello jamielaird

Thanks for your answer. Could you please make more precise how to proceed?

I tried to imitate by using the import functionality from the configuration window of the Text Input Tool. But after having the browsed a text file, the attached message popped up.

Import Failure Message.PNG