Creating Currency Formatter Macro

[CSmith16]

Hello, I am following the Alteryx Academy interactive lessons and I am on the standard macro portion. I have downloaded a dataset from Yahoo finance to use as my input data. When making the macro using the Multi-Field Formula tool, on the academy video, they did not select any fields and just checked the Dynamic or Unkown Fields box I tried doing the same and my workflow is resulting in an error because there must be at least 1 field selected for the tool. I can click the specific fields I want to use but, this would only be useful for datasets with the same column names/position. I am not sure what I did differently that allows for the academy macro to be used differently than the one I am creating. 

[SPetrie]

What does your metadata say about those columns?

Looking at your screenshot, I think they may be converted to strings based on the dashes in one row.

Since those are strings and not numeric fields, they will not be acted upon by your multi-field tool since the tool is set to look for numeric columns.

[CSmith16]

They are string data types. The video on the academy is about adding a "$" in front of the string data in the column, then turning it into an interactive macro where you choose the columns you want to add the $ to. It starts with an auto field tool, which to my understanding won't recognize the columns unless they are a string data type, then uses a multi-row formula: "$"+ToString([_CurrentField_],2,1). The issue is in the multirow formula, I have to have at least 1 field selected but inte video they do not select any and the workflow runs just fine. If it helps, this is the lesson I am referring to here: (Creating a Standard Macro - Alteryx Community). Maybe I am doing something wrong, I probably am.

[SPetrie · Accepted solution]

The autofield tool works on all types. It takes your data and converts it to the data type that best fits the data it sees in the column. String, V_String, Int, Double, etc. Its not just strings.

In the example workflow from the lesson, it converts the columns to doubles.

Thats why the multi-field is also set to look for numeric fields. The Dynamic selection will work on any field that is numeric no matter what it is named.

The formula then takes that number, converts it back to a string but with only 2 decimal places instead of what was there before and adds the $ in front of it.

Their data is a bit cleaner as well. They dont have any commas in the numbers and there are no values that are non-numeric like the dash I pointed out previously. 

Because of the dashes and commas though, your data will only be string which leaves it out of the numeric field category.

You would need to either cleanup your data before it gets to the autofield tool so it comes out as numeric, or use a different formula to select the values to convert and add a $ to.

I attached a workflow that has their data they used in the lesson plus a quick input I made to show alternative ways of doing it.

I suggest using their data to follow along with the lesson for now though since it is already clean and will be easier to replicate their results with.

 I hope this helps, but please let me know if you still need assistance!

[CSmith16]

Awesome, thank you for all your help! Question though, where do I access the data they use for the Academy videos? This is why I was having issues to begin with as I was struggling to find datasets that I can learn along with on my own.

[CSmith16]

Also, my organization does not use that version of Alteryx Desktop unfortunately. Importing it into desktop results in a pop-up message saying "This workflow was created by a more recent version of Alteryx, and may contain tools or functionality not present in this version. Alteryx does not support using an earlier version of Alteryx to open a workflow created with a newer version. For best results, download the latest version of Alteryx." I appreciate all your help in replying to this though.

[SPetrie]

Glad I was able to help!

Most of the lessons will have a resources icon in the upper left right.

You can get the data from there.

As far as the versioning, if you know what version you are on, you can open the workflow in a text editor like notepad or notepad++ and edit the version number to match yours.

You can see my 2022.1 here, just change that to be the same as your version and it should open for you after saving.

[CSmith16]

Awesome man, you are amazing. I really appreciate all the help!