Converting Numbers In Alphanumeric Columns

[24_r_]

I'm new to Alteryx and have spent the past few hours reading through probably 75-100 community posts and trial and erroring. Apologies if this is a basic issue, but I have columns in an xlsx file where some cells have numbers, and some have letters/words. From reading about data types, these need to be set as some form of string, however, when I do this and export to Excel, the numbers are stored as text (which I understand that's what they are on the source data) - see example picture.

My question is: using Alteryx, how do I get the numbers to be stored as numbers and the text to be stored as text? In the same column.

In addition to any solutions, if you wouldn't mind a short explanation of whatever you provide, or any resources you can route me to, it would be much appreciated so I can learn.

Input data is attached for reference.

Thank you!

[CoG]

Someone may be able to provide more insight as to whether or not some fancy output magic can accomplish your use-case.

That being said, one of the things that enables Alteryx Designer to work its magic (unlike Excel) is that columns have the same data type. This cannot be changed as it is a integral to the application's functionality.

[gawa]

@24_r_ 

Here is one way by using Batch macro.

Read records one by one, and change field type by Auto Field tool within Batch Macro, and write out data one by one.

Then, you will get the desired output. 

[caltang]

Wow! Very useful. Will bookmark this.

[Qiu]

@gawa 
Briliant idea.

[24_r_]

@gawa thank you so much! It sounds like you provided a great solution. Unfortunately my company controls my install version of Alteryx (see attached version snip) and it looks like your solution is from a newer version of Alteryx (see attached error message). I know this is not your problem, so I may have to keep poking around unless you know of anything else that might work with more basic tools. Thanks again for your help! I'll definitely bookmark this as well for when I can update.

[gawa]

@24_r_ Mine was made by 2022.3.

Even if you got error message, can you press Yes and proceed it? I bet you can open it without issue.

[24_r_]

@gawa Ohh I see! I did do that yesterday but didn't try to run it (I didn't realize the blank blue circle was the macro - very new, sorry). I ran the workflow and the output is showing what's in the attached picture which makes me think maybe it's an Excel issue/setting?

[gawa]

It works at my computer, but not sure why it's not at yours. Can you try a bit to make it work properly?  I'm stuck here.

[24_r_]

Yea I'll play around with it, thank you once again for the help! I'll report back if I'm able to figure it out.