Auto Field Tool

[AustinRiggs94]

Hi All,

I have been under the impression that the auto field tool acts as an auto fit tool for columns.. is this correct? If so, i have been trying to use it and have had no luck. I have followed about all guides in the community. Please let me know, thanks for the help

[tcroberts]

Yes, it chooses the smallest data type for each field in your data stream.

Could you provide some more information about what you're trying to do, the output you're getting, and what the issue is?

Cheers

[AustinRiggs94]

Thanks for replying,

I have columns that contain both V_String and Double (see attached). What i would like is the output to have "autofitted" columns instead of me using a macro in Excel. However this the result i get when i use the auto field tool.

I am probably misusing the tool but wanted clarification, thanks.

[tcroberts]

Sorry I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be seeing in those documents. As far as I can tell they are identical. Could you explain a little more what you were expecting to happen, and perhaps provide a small  'made up' dataset that illustrates it?

[KOBoyle · Accepted solution]

When I have heard the term autofit with Excel and other tools, it refers to column width and adjusting the width so the widest value is visible. The Auto Field tool sets the smallest data type and field size. That is not the same thing. The purpose of the tool is to reduce resource consumption and improve workflow performance. In some cases it will also update a field initially interpreted as a string type to a numeric type. In your case it is simply shortening the string size as the number fields were interpreted correctly as Double. You can see this be clicking on Metadata in the Results pane. The Auto Field tool will not affect how Excel behaves.

Input Metadata

Auto Field Metadata

[AustinRiggs94]

That makes perfect sense. Thank you for the help.

[siddharthsinghal01]

Is there a way to extract/export the metadata output from the auto field tool? 

Thanks is advance!

[apathetichell]

Field Info tool creates the metadata from the auto field tool in your workflow - note, it includes non-autofield types ie numeric types.

[siddharthsinghal01]

Thank you! It worked.