Building Blocks for standard solutions / procedures

[AlexSTeryx]

Hi Alteryx Community!
Approx. half a year ago we launched Alteryx at our company (Straumann Group), Since then every now and then we discussed in our user group how to solve some standard procedures like calculation of a ranking or month to date (MTD) sales in Alteryx. The community mostly had some solution to that, but nonetheless we had some how the feeling, the wheel is invented again and again. 
Hence, we came up with the idea to create a "library" of building blocks that can be  easily included in Alteryx WF. Ideally by just copy & paste or with some minor amendments.

With this article we want to share them with the community and also invite you adding further building blocks if you feel like it. 

Any new BB we will add to the list.

Building Block	Description	Link
Ranking	WF that calculates a ranking for a given set of values, identical values are given the same rank, following ranks are left empty	Building Block - Ranking - Alteryx Community
Block Parallel Output	enables output in several sheets of one Excel file without causing an error that teh file is blocked	Building Block - Block Parallel Output - Alteryx Community

[Ben_H]

Hi @AlexSTeryx,

I think this is a good approach, but I would turn common procedures like this in to a library of Macros.

So for instance your Ranking routine as a macro could just have a config saying which field to rank, and what kind of ranking.

That way you don't have to load another routine, and copy and paste it in. It also keeps workflows from becoming excessively complex on screen.

If someone needed to learn how the rankings worked they could still just open the macro.

Regards,

Ben

[AlexSTeryx]

Hi @Ben_H,

thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I agree this could also be an option. In Alteryx many paths lead to Rome ;-).

If you like you can post such a ranking Macro and I‘ll add it to the list of solutions.

My feeling is that macros certainly have a lot of advantages but some user also do not (yet)  feel comfortable using them. So why not offering both options and community member can pick what suits them.

Cheers

Alex