How to compare a large number of fields?

Question

So I have a file with around 90 columns which i received from a vendor. A week later the vendor revised the file and send me a new one. The vendor called out what the changes were but i want to make sure those are the only changes in the file.

I know the long way to do this is by putting these files in Alteryx, doing a Join with the common identifier, selecting columns which i want to compare and applying a formula function to see if all the data in the column is the same. However i have 90 columns and this will take forever so I'm wondering if someone has a better solution where i can compare all columns quickly and get a result in which fields there are differences?

apathetichell · Answer

also note: if the name/value are both matched in join that means the join anchor will have values which are the same in both data source. Your new values/updated values will be tied into whichever anchor has the updated values.

And just as an fyi - I generated two data sources with 400,000 random integers and joined on 3 fields to test random numbers (about 9.5% matched on a 1-10 rand).  Join isn't all that memory intensive unless you are matching huge string fields or spatial...

apathetichell · Answer

that's fine - you can compare 400,000 rows. 400,000 rows and one column or two column (if you are matching which columns have the same data) is much easier than 100 columns.

AlterixNoob · Answer

There's more than 400,000 rows so I'm assuming transposing wont be the best solution here?