Alteryx workflow selects no records on some days. How do I create heading file only?

Question

HI,

I have a very simple alteryx workflow that queries data and some days it has no records which is valid. I want alteryx to still create an excel file with just headings so that it documents a file was run but no records, just show the column headings.

Any help with this is appreciated. If you can provide either the tools or code that I need, that would be very helpful.

Thanks, George

HomesickSurfer · Answer

@GeorgeLevesque

Although I like @cjaneczko's proposed solution that should be accepted, uniting a fields/header template and without a single record or more will still produce No Records.  May I suggest that you tie in a text input with your desired fields and additionally add a timestamp.  This stamp will go in Row1 of your output file, or the last row (if you have resulting data).

Gawa · Answer

hi @GeorgeLevesque

I checked the functionality of Output tool, and I confirmed that Output tool writes only header when no no record.

Now I could not reproduce your issue, or I might miss something. Please tell me more in this regard.

cjaneczko · Answer

Are the column headings always the same? If they are you can create a heading template file and union that against the main dataset. If there are records they will show below the union headings. Otherwise you will just get the heading as an output.