Alteryx Assigns Size of Over 16 Million

[cpet13]

I have a database I am extracting data from. A field in the database is assigned the character size of varchar 255. But when the workflow runs, it assigns the field a size of over 16 million. There is no way the field would ever need a size greater than 255, which is why it is assigned that in the database. How do I get Alteryx to use the size that the field was assigned in the database, instead of using the Alteryx-automatically-assigned size?

[Deano478]

You could use a select tool and set it to 255 again 

[Raj]

@cpet13 
Use Alteryx auto field tool.
you can refer the EXAMPLE attached.
mark done if solved.

[cpet13]

@Deano478 thank you for the reply. I have done that and fixed the fields that had the large size. Then a few days later, I looked again and for some reason it had started assigning other fields to be that enormous size, fields that were originally already set to 255.

@Raj I do not want to use the auto field tool. That takes the smallest possible size and assigns the field to that size - I want to be able to tell it to take the field size that is set on the database and use that as the field size for the field.

[Raj · Accepted solution]

@cpet13 
if you are bringing it from the data base you can use custom SQL Query
SELECT CAST(your_field AS VARCHAR(255)) AS your_field FROM your_table


this will work.