Field Summary Tool had not clearly labelled the X-axis, for its Scatter Plot

[jwang357]

Hi Alteryx !!

Hope everybody is enjoying a fab xmas !!

I had been experimenting with a simple workflow. ( attached herein yxmd file)  

The Scatter Plot  produced from the Field Summary tool's "Reporting" output anchor , became very useful for me to understand the Predictor's  distribution;

But the Scatter Plot could clearly label for me its X-axis .

Hopefully somebody knows what the x-axis stand for.

Thanking you warmly, and merry xmas !! 

jen

[alexnajm]

You can check the Interactive anchor (I) to see if that provides some clarity. Otherwise, try recreating it with an Interactive Chart tool!

[jwang357]

Thank you for your replies, I had tried your suggestions, but it did not work yet, good ideas though !! 

[alexnajm]

What about opening up the tool and checking the R code?

[jwang357]

Thank you Alex, you have quite a few good ideas there !

I had been informed, unfortunately, you cannot directly view or edit the R code behind Alteryx's built-in tools like the Field Summary Tool. These tools are pre-configured by Alteryx, and their underlying R scripts (if used) are not exposed to users.

I hope there was a much more efficient way , to reveal what the x-axis represent at the end of the day;

Preferably find a code-free method: I had tried to get a "full report", by connecting this Field Summary Tool, to the Render Tool, ie trying to get a report in HTML format, or PDF, or excel format, but none of those formats had revealed the X-axis field .

I had suspected, that the X-Axis could be referring to the Record ID field.....could anybody confirm with proof ?

Meanwhile, using your good suggestion Alex, we might be able to replicate or extend the functionality of the field Summary Tool, by building our own R-based custom tool or by using the R Tool within Alteryx.

My proposed implementation as per your suggested method, hope we are getting there ( wink, wink) :

This was how I might apply the R tool to summarise fields:

library(dplyr)

# Load input data
df <- read.Alteryx("#1") # Read from input connection

# Summarize fields
field_summary <- df %>%
summarise_all(list(
Min = ~ ifelse(is.numeric(.), min(., na.rm = TRUE), NA),
Max = ~ ifelse(is.numeric(.), max(., na.rm = TRUE), NA),
NullCount = ~ sum(is.na(.)),
Type = ~ typeof(.)
)) %>%
pivot_longer(everything(), names_to = c("Field", "Metric"), names_sep = "_")

# Write output
write.Alteryx(field_summary, 1) # Output to Alteryx

Hope some Alteryx genius out there have a code-free method , thanking you !

[alexnajm · Accepted solution]

@jwang357 I am not sure I agree with not being able to look at the underlying code, have you tried opening up the macro and finding the R tool within it? Right click on the field summary tool and click open Macro

[jwang357]

Yes, thank you Alex ! your method of opening up the macro had worked !! 

hahaha, Record ID was used by Alteryx to represent the X-axis , thank you Alex, happy new year !!!!!  

[alexnajm]

Happy holidays to you as well!