Can alteryx create logical connection similar to Tableau?

I've been asking internally to users and i've had no luck with my concern.

I'm currently using Alteryx Designer 2020.3.5

I have had recent success in Tableau being able to establish what they deem as 'logical connections' between tables. This allows for the use of data points between tables without truly 'joining' them. Data i'm trying to put together in Alteryx are not connected with 1-1 ratios, so joins would increase numerical values depending on however many times the associated field is found in each data set. I know i could take time to understand and reset the numbers to the original values, but the option in tableau for physical connections seems very useful for my related data sources.

My current setup downloads all alteryx flows of specific data types to their own respective sheet in an excel file. Tableau then joins them in a logical connection (with a field that is associated between the data sets). While this works fine for now...i'm still curious if alteryx has the ability to just create the logical connection just as Tableau does. I'm worried my data sets may become too large to hold in just excel files (become > 1 mil rows). I would hope to just use alteryx to put all the tables together and be shared on the tableau Server (as 1 data source).

Has anyone created a 'logical table connection' in alteryx?

Test for Logical layering.yxmd

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Accepted answers

estherb47

Hi @Murtyboy5

Tableau and Alteryx treat joins very differently. There is not the same concept of a "logical join" where many to many relationships are treated more like one to one. This is a fairly new development in Tableau as well

Chances are you can leave your model in Tableau, and take advantage of that logic. Even if you've outgrown Excel, both programs can read in many different sources.

Cheers,

Esther

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danilang

Hi @Murtyboy5

Can you provide some data examples of what the logical connections look like and how they behave? i.e. if you have 2 records in table A that match with 2 records in table B, how does the logical connection in tableau return only 2 records and not the 4 records that a join would.

Dan

estherb47

Hi @Murtyboy5

Chances are you can leave your model in Tableau, and take advantage of that logic. Even if you've outgrown Excel, both programs can read in many different sources.

Cheers,

Esther

Murtyboy5

I attached an example of a scenario that is a non 1-1 ratio in Alteryx. Below are screenshots of alteryx and logical layering.

Technically if i pull in a table to try and create Order-charge#-Labor hours it does show 'duplicated' information, but when charge number is removed the labor structure goes back to the original amount of rows. There are a few calculations to report what percentage of parts are accounted for in each charge number (per order). when you multiply that by labor it reports out accurate information about labor.

Logical Table Connection

Calc for labor to help with distribution between Charge numbers

Dashboard

Test for Logical layering.yxmd

Murtyboy5

Thanks for the recommendation EstherB47. At this point i think i'm just worried the sheer size of the tables may exceed Excel's row limit (if expansion in my business is needed for the workbook). Would you have any recommendation for upgrading from excel to another output form that's in a network location?

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