topic Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date in Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:08:37 GMT

Hi all,

Have searched the forum and found a few similar solutions, but they either do not work for me when I hit run, or are massively convoluted for what I thought was a simple process.

I would like to copy and paste an Excel workbook from one folder to another - and for the pasted workbook add current date in the format DDMonYY - e.g. 27Jul21. So obviously would have to be dynamic.

So input file: Workbook.xlsx (stays in the same folder untouched)

Output file: Workbook 27Jul21.xlsx (copied to a different folder)

Wondering if there was an easy way of doing this using max 4 or so tools/connections?

Many thanks!

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

atcodedog05 — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:14:50 GMT

Hi @Wixard

I have a method for you. Something I picked up from @AkimasaKajitani cant be thankful enough.

Workflow:

1. In blob input tool configure the template file.

2. In formula tool set the new filepath. This way we can generate filenames with date.

3. Configure the blob output tool to output the file to the location taking it from the field.

Try and let me know.

Hope this helps : )

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:16:07 GMT

Hi @atcodedog05

This looks super promising - only problem is when I try and download your canvas says "couldn't download - no file"

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

atcodedog05 — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:19:28 GMT

Try this @Wixard

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Luke_C — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:26:57 GMT

Hi @Wixard

@atcodedog05 blob method is super simple, here is the other option using the run command tool. You just need to update the directory and some of the formulas to use your file paths:

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:29:50 GMT

@atcodedog05

Absolutely brilliant! This is exactly what I was looking for!

Could I ask for one more thing, if its possible that is. Is there a way of just taking the original file name without having to hard code it directly in formula tool?

In other words, no matter what the file is called, it will just replicate what the file was originally called, and then stamp the date as per your solution.

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:31:44 GMT

Thanks a lot @Luke_C

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 11:27:03 GMT

Is it possible to use Wildcards in the Blob input tool?

For example Workbook*xlsx

I don't seem to be able to make it work

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

atcodedog05 — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 11:29:13 GMT

Hi @Wixard

Use the wild card in directory tool to get the full names of the files and then pass it to blob tool.

Hope this helps : )

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 11:30:24 GMT

Thanks for the super quick reply. I'll give it a try!

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 11:37:16 GMT

Second question - is it possible to write to an output based on a wildcard?

In other words I am bringing in Workbook*.xlsx, but I want to write to a copy of this file which has the same name (the output is a copy of the input workbook in a different folder e.g. Workbook28Feb.

Reason is that I am writing to a range in order to maintain Excel formatting.

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

atcodedog05 — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 11:52:16 GMT

Hi @Wixard

After you read the file as a blob you will still have the column from the directory input tool which will give you the filename of that specific file which you can use to create a new file.

Hope this helps : )

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

Wixard — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 09:48:42 GMT

Amazing - thanks @atcodedog05

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

atcodedog05 — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 09:49:32 GMT

Happy to help : ) @Wixard

Cheers and have a nice day!

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

gix — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:43:40 GMT

Adding on to this.

I need to continue to work on this new file Workbook 27Jul21.xlsx. How should I link it up to the rest of the workflow?

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

anayet1988 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 10:33:23 GMT

This is a really good solution. However, I am wondering if there is a way to delete the original file that you are copying. Essentially - what this is means is instead of copying and renaming with the date. I would like to CUT and rename with date.

Thanks

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

jmathew94 — Tue, 02 May 2023 16:15:07 GMT

Thanks! This works how I expected, how can i use this tool for daily files? Example: Using the same template file as the blob input and the same formula for the timestamp but different outputs for daily files?

Re: Copy and Paste Excel from one folder to another and add date

abhishek_deshaw — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 00:18:55 GMT

Is it also possible to modify the workflow such that rather than specifying a particular source directly, it dynamically pickups the names of files and their respective locations through an excel file and then copy and pastes them into a path specified in a destination column?