Can I output merged rows divided in 2 records in reporting tool in the same sheet/file?

[Denisa_Grecu]

Hello,

I have the following situation:

- I have different tables created via reporting tool and are being outputted in different sheets within the same excel file - everything goes well and they are perfectly looking;

- the team I am working for requested me some additional changed to one of the sheets - which meant to merge few rows for a column in order to have just once the record (which later will appear as 2 records -pic 1), then union back this with the remaining data. The only way I was able to achieve this is by adding another layout tool combining the records (pic 2- print below) before the final union and layout tool. In Alteryx it looks ok (pic 3), but when I open the excel it looks with a wrong format (pic 4).

The WF is a big one, so I cannot attach it, but you have a print of it (pic 5). And in the image 6 you will see the last tools used (union, layout and render tool that will use all tables created).

How can I make it keep the format in Excel?

(pic 1)

(pic 2)

 (pic 3)

(pic 4)

(pic 5)

(pic 6)

[mceleavey]

Hi @Denisa_Grecu ,

The short answer is, you can't. Excel formatting is done in Excel. You COULD create a template in Excel then populate the template as an output, which SHOULD retain the original formatting, but I think you would run into problems where there are a different number of rows/columns each time. It is technically achievable, but I think you would need to dynamically alter the XML of the Excel file each time.

I might be wrong, but I'm not sure this is  achievable.

M

[Denisa_Grecu]

Hello @mceleavey Thank you for your answer.

I also thought it might not be possible to do it, but I tried to see if there is a way I didn´t know about it. I thought about a macro doing the job after, but to be honest I am afraid on how the data would look after if I would have more records each month, as you mentioned.

But thank you for confirming what I was thinking. I will try to see if I can perform the request using another way.