Alteryx malfunctions when viewing/processing excel sheet with formulas.

[vj28]

Here's exactly what I did :

I create 2 excel workbooks.Workbook1 has two sheets; Sheet1 and Sheet2
Sheet1 has two columns and three rows of data (all integers)
Sheet2 has formulas that calculate the cubes of each of those integers in sheet1 in their respective areas.

In workbook2 there's one sheet called sheet3, who's values I overwrite into sheet1 (in workbook1) using the alteryx input, output tools (configured to overwrite sheet or range option)
Now if I use the browse tool to check back in workbook1; the changes are reflected in sheet1, but not sheet2. When I open the file physically I can see the changed values in sheet2 that have the cubed values, but accessing through alteryx, the changes in the sheet2(the one with all the formulas) can't be seen at all.

I understand that alteryx doesn't auto-trigger formulas in excel sheets but even after I manually open said sheet and close it and try viewing that sheet thru alteryx why does it not show the newly modified values?  

[Sebastian_Chaieb2]

Hi @vj28 

I see t hat you tagged this post as "Server". So it means that the issue persists when the workflow is running on the Gallery? or it happens when you run it in your local Designer?

Thanks for clarification,

Sebastian 

[OTrieger]

@vj28 
The minute that you import data into Alteryx then you have the current data in that file.

You are saying the Sheet2 is using formulas to to update the values based on the output to Sheet1. If you will want to see the new data in Sheet2 you will need to run again the automation so the new modified values in Sheet2 will flow into Alteryx.

None of the excel formulas will be reflected in Alteryx, Alteryx only important the data as is. There is away to pull in the formulas as text/string, so you can see the formula in Alteryx but it will be plain string.

[vj28]

I've done everything on local designer. I should have made that clarification. 

[vj28]

@OTrieger Tried it , didn't work. 

I even opened a whole new alteryx workflow and simply used the input tool and browse tool to view "sheet2" from workbook1 file and even then all I see are zeroes. 

[OTrieger · Accepted solution]

@vj28 
True, I forget one step, the things with formulas, that if you want get them refresh the actual excel file need to be open and saved, then the new values will be reflected in worksheet2.

You can try to do it with Run Command, open the excel file, save it and then close it.

[vj28]

@OTrieger Thanks a ton, manually opened it and a simple ctrl+s was all it took.