Connecting to an Alteryx output from Excel that does not make Excel Crash

Question

Hi,

Is there a way to connect to an Alteryx output in Excel so that I can run my reports in Excel?

Currently, I am outputting my data into an Excel worksheet, but the file is so large that it makes Excel crash. I also found out that we cannot connect to an Alteryx database directly from Excel. I also tried outputting my data into Access, but it's also too much to handle for Access.

Edit: The output currently uses about 370K rows (120K KB) in Excel, but for some reason it crashes some times. This could be because the file is saved in a shared folder in the company directory. I need this to be saved in the shared folder because I am not the only one using this output.

Is there a work around this?

Unfortunately, I need to keep using Excel to run my reports, otherwise I would output my data into a Tableau extract and run my reports in Tableau.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

JV

MattBSlalom · Answer

Thanks for updating with the actual row count, that helps.  As mentioned, you shouldn't be hitting a limitation of Excel with that row count.  I have seen strange/frustrating behavior when dealing with shared drives in the past.  Here are 2 more thoughts for you:

* You said it must stay on the shared drive since it's accessed by others... but, can you leave Alteryx writing to that location (since you don't seem to mention an issue with the workflow), then copy the file (or add a 2nd output in the workflow) locally to open in Excel?  Then save/copy that finished version on top of the shared drive version.
* 120 MB is not a small Excel file either, so I'm wondering if it could be your laptop specs that are the culprit.  Just for curiosity, how much RAM does your system have?

apathetichell · Answer

Is there a possibility it's crashing because this is an OPEN shared field (ie someone else is using it) while Alteryx is trying to write to it?

danilang · Answer

Hi @JonaV

Like the others have mentioned a 120 MB Excel file with 370K rows should be ok to open in Excel.  How many columns? What error messages to you get when Excel crashes?

Dan