Alteryx reading date columns as V_WString from SQL Server

Question

While adding a table from Microsoft SQL Server to an existing workflow we got caught by an interesting quirk - Alteryx read the Date and DateTime columns as V_WString.

Interestingly, the table itself was created in another Alteryx process so we really expected the database definitions to be read by Alteryx.

Is there a method we can use so that date and date-time columns in a database are brought in to a workflow with the attributes being applied from the database or is it common practice to have to re-define these fields to the date formats?

If the latter, are there any other data types we should be cautious about?

Thanks for your consideration,

Doug

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apathetichell · Answer

hey @demort - not an expert in SQL Server - but two questions - what version of Alteryx are you running - and what does your data look like if you look at IN-DB? ie does it maintain the correct schema?

WeiLi · Answer

i dont use MS SQL, instead i use MySQL.

the DB administrator has access to ALTER TABLE (the actual SQL command) to change the column type. a column can integer, double (ie decimals), string (ie. characters or "CHAR"), and date (ie. ISO date format, which is "YYYY-MM-DD")

if you already have data in string format, the ALTER TABLE command can still be used to convert string. speak with your DB admin about it.