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Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

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CSV imports as only one column

DataDriver
5 - Atom

Hi All, beginner Alteryx user here - thanks for all your help. I'm having trouble importing a sales transaction CSV file into Alteryx.

 

Bit of background:

 

  • Large file size (10 million rows, 32 columns) means manually opening/editing in Excel is not viable
  • The file is European, meaning it's most likely delimited by semicolons instead of commas
  • Each row has multiple lines within it (ex: a salesperson can write lengthy notes in one column)

 

The challenge:

 

When I try importing, all 32 columns from the CSV end up in 1 column/field. Additionally, whenever it hits a section with multiple lines, Alteryx adds an entirely new row. Example:

 

CSV:

Item

Notes

Invoiced Amount

Item 1

Sold to retailer

Repeat buyer

Production delayed

500.00

Item 2Sold to wholesaler

200.00

 

After importing to Alteryx:

Item   Notes   Invoiced Amount
Item 1   Sold to retailer
Repeat buyer
Production delayed   500.00
Item 2    Sold to wholesaler    200.00

 

I'm unsure if the spaces between former columns like Items and Notes are tabs or spaces - it's simply blank. Only 1 column/field appears in Alteryx, regardless if I choose delimiter as a comma, semicolon, or \0. Could it be a tab delimiter?

 

Is someone able to help share a solution if you've run across this same issue?

 

Not sure if this issue is import-related or if there are post-import steps needed to clean the data. Happy to share more about the import options I've tried using - still no success yet. Thank you for the help!

2 REPLIES 2
_enrique_javier
7 - Meteor

First you have to figure out what the actual character is being used as the delimiter; use a text editor instead of Excel to open the file, such as Notepad++; while you're there, take notice of what is the file encoding, UTF-8 for instance; then configure the Input tool appropriately. If you are able to, post a sample of the raw file for further help.

Qiu
21 - Polaris
21 - Polaris

@DataDriver 

Is this what you need?

0112-DataDriver.PNG

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