Alteryx won't recognize strike-through data in cell from Excel

Hi everyone,

This might be a random question but I will try anyways:

I am working with an Excel file that has one column with dates. Basically, my team uses it to keep track of a series of dates where the most current date will be on top and the history of "old dates" will be below (same cell) but with strikethrough (see picture below).

So the dates are in ONE cell (separated on individual lines) and when I try to import it, alteryx just spits out "Null" for those that have more than one date in the cell.

Is there a way for Alteryx to recognize this data (and not lose it)? I need this field to for a formula but they also want to keep the "date history" in the output.

I tried data cleaning, text to column, etc but nothing has worked so far.

I really appreciate your help!

Thank you,

Workflow

Accepted answers

estherb47

Hi @Verenala4

+1 to @geraldo 's suggestion to paste into Notepad to see what is separating the data in your "dates" column.

Once you have that, you can set up Text to Columns on that character, separating into Rows. I add a Record ID before the Text to Columns in order to recognize the original rows.

A Tile tool assigns a unique counter number to each row within each Unique Record ID. Be sure to set it up like this:

Then filter for the Tile_Sequence Numbers that are 1. The T output of the Filter will have the records needed for the formula, and the F output will have everything else. You can rebuild the table with all of the historical dates with a Union tool.

Incidentally, if you want to use the dates as dates in Alteryx, you'll need to convert them from string into date format. This is easily done with the Date Time Parse tool.

Let me know if that helps.

Cheers!

Esther

DatesInColumns.yxzp

All comments

rkapoor

Have a look at the attached sample workflow.

The strike through date and the active date are delimited by a newline in the actual cell in Excel.

You need to parse the data in the cell in Alteryx via the Text to Columns tool with a '\n' delimiter (newline) and split to rows.

verenala4_sample.yxzp

geraldo

Hi,

What is the Altreryx import data type?

Already imported as string.

[]

benakesh

Hi @Verenala4 ,

Hope this helps

Verenala4.yxmd

geraldo

Hi,

Copy the line that has more than one date and paste it into notepad ++ and check the character you are separating. He has the option to see the characters

[]

estherb47

Hi @Verenala4

+1 to @geraldo 's suggestion to paste into Notepad to see what is separating the data in your "dates" column.

Incidentally, if you want to use the dates as dates in Alteryx, you'll need to convert them from string into date format. This is easily done with the Date Time Parse tool.

Let me know if that helps.

Cheers!

Esther

DatesInColumns.yxzp

Verenala4

Hi @estherb47 !

Thank you very much for your reply! It finally worked 🙂 !! (Also thank you to @geraldo for the initial idea). I have no idea why it didn't work yesterday but when I redid it today with the tile tool, it finally worked.

Now I have one last question about the unioning of the "historic" data. When I concatenate it into one "cell" in Alteryx, it separates it with a comma ",". Is there a way to separate the dates with a tab instead (meaning having them on individual lines within one cell)?

Thank you,

Verena

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