topic Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side in Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

Iamharishnb — Thu, 24 May 2018 03:54:49 GMT

This is my first post on this site
I have YTD sales data and I want to track the everyday change of sales, which can be used in future to see the trend. I have consolidated multiple data sources and summarized to see the sales by profit center but not sure how to append the data side by side.

Requirement
Append sales data on a daily basis in an Excel side by side with current date being the header.

sample attached

Profit Center	28_June__2017	29_June__2017
AB_10	19,449	26,689
AB_11	245,752	253,290
AB_12	8,575	8,887
AB_13	134,337	143,358
AB_14	44,760	46,646
AB_15	235,746	245,176

Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

david_fetters — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 18:58:35 GMT

Alteryx doesn't seem to overwrite an existing sheet in an excel file, so you will need to output a new file or a new sheet each day it runs.

While I get using the word 'append' here, you are really trying to join the new data onto the previous data, using the Profit Center as the common key. You'll just need to get the new day's data organized into two columns, one named "Profit Center" and one "profit data". You can then use the Dynamic Rename tool (developer tools tab) to rename the data column into whatever format you want (likely using some of the Date Time functions and string replace tools to get your desired format).

This can be joined to your existing data pretty easily, even with the dynamic/changing field name for your data column (since you can just deselect the duplicate "Profit Center" column and leave the "Dynamic or Unknown Fields" option checked within the join tool. If your new data is in the right input to the join tool, it should automatically end up as the last column in the resulting joined data set.

This make sense?

Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

DanS — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:08:51 GMT

To expand on what david was saying, I've attached a quick join that would work once you've gotten your data to the point of the two Text Inputs in the attached.

Also, you should be able to overwrite the excel sheet in the output tool like below:

Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

david_fetters — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:22:31 GMT

Dan, thanks for that. Not sure why I didn't poke around in output options.

Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

Iamharishnb — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 17:09:09 GMT

Thanks, Dan - exactly what I was looking for...

I had an output with the current workflow and joined the previous day's output to the current output and this combined output becomes my final/combined output of today; which includes yesterday and today's data side by side, thanks!

Being new to alteryx the workflow you attached was the key for me to understand your suggestion.

Re: Append data on a daily basis in columns side by side

Iamharishnb — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 17:10:03 GMT

Thanks for the response David, I really appreciate it :)