Challenge to union 7 data sources. Please help. Thank you~

[florayaoyao]

Hi Everyone, 

Today is my second day with Alteryx, still figure things out but excited~~.  I came to a situation and would love to hear some advise to better design the workflow.  Here is my situation: 

I have 7 data sources, 3 in text files, with the same column fields, about 25 columns, also plus another 4 excel reports all comes with different columns names and orders.  I  am looking for union all 7 sources together,  but by using the union tool, I find it's really difficult to match postion columns by dragging the names using the "Move forward/backward" button, and it won't let me to leave the empty columns between. For example, If I move the Col 13 to 14, then col 14 will come to col 13 instead but not leave the 13 empty. 

In this case, I am wondering... will someone have better ideas for me to achieve the same goal?  I am also thinking about changing names in the each data source, and then union by matching names... but now sure what is the best/easy way to do it.   

Any advise / help is well appreciated!  

Thank you all~ 

Flora 

[Garrett]

I'd recommend you use Select tools prior to the Union tool to rename and/or reorder fields for each of the different file types.  Then use the Union tool's "Auto Config" setting.

IMO the Select tool UI is infinitely faster and easier to manipulate than the "Manually Configure Fields" interface in the Union tool.  I only use the "Manually Configure Fields" interface to double-check that everything is going to line up.