Create column with rows of calculated text

Question

I'm trying to create a new column that formulates a text string, using other columns of data. The formula I have right now is:

IF [Column 2] != "N" THEN "Went from" + [Datapoint1] + "to " + [Datapoint2] ELSE " " ENDIF

I am getting a parse error 'Type mismatch in operator +. I've tried putting the column names in " ", but then it just surfaces the text of the column names (looks like "Went from [Datapoint1] to [Datapoint2]".

I want the column to be dynamic, where if the row of data meets the IF criteria, it says "Went from 1 to 4", or "Went from 1 to 500" depending on the values in the corresponding datapoint1/datapoint2 columns. What am I missing? It's been awhile since I've used Alteryx so a little rusty 🙂

apathetichell · Accepted Answer

Hi!

You're very close but the issue is that either or both [datapoint1] or [datapoint2] is a number - not a string (I'm assuming [column2] is a string).

If you put both in the tostring() function via tostring([datapoint1]) and  tostring([datapoint2]) but leave the rest of your formula the same - it should work.

DylanDowrick · Accepted Answer

replace [Datapoint1] with: ToString([Datapoint1]), that should cover it!

estherb47 · Accepted Answer

Hi @ewall_dup_446

The tostring() function around both of the datapoint fields should, as has been mentioned, solve the problem

Don't forget to add spaces in your strings. tostring([1])+"to"+tostring([2])  will come out as 1to2 for example. " to " results in 1 to 2.

Cheers!

Esther