Fields Description Labeller Macro

Question

Hi Alteryx Community,

I have run into a problem with regards to writing/editing/manipulating the meta data of an alteryx data frame.

I have a flow which use multiple inputs, joins them and towards the end, i would like to deselect fields and only keep primary keys in my dataset.

For this, It would be nice if I can label the field description(metadata) at the input stage using a macros for all coloumns comming from that specific input.

The solution that I have currently built looks like this

But it is not dynamic enough as I have to still map the fields. What I would like is a simple macro, that only asks me where the fields are coming from and then automatically label description (in the metadata) to what I write as an answer to that question.

For example if I have data coming from customer sales data base, the macro would ask where is it coming from, and once I write something like "from customer_sales_2018", it would automatically type "from customer_sales_2018" in the field description of all fields coming from that source.

Has anyone built a solution like that?

field descriptions labeller test.yxmc

Taanis · Answer

I wish there was a way the field info tool could also write to the meta deta than just read from it. So we could then read the meta data, manipulate it using a formula tool and then write that back to the meta data of the data frame , that would possibly be another idea that could label fields without the use of macros.

Taanis · Answer

Yes, It is somewhat inaccurate for the source that I work with. It only works if the source has a recognizable name, that is not the case for me, hence I have to give it an easy to recognise label myself and therefore, came the idea to make a macro to do it.

Sebastiaandb · Answer

Hi @Taanis ,

We use Marquee_Crew's macro's  a lot and he has a dynamic metadata macro as well to map size, length etc. from one source to another. We have altered his macro for our own use case and i bet you can also alter it for your idea.

I do like your idea tough!

Here's the link to his macro's:

Chaos Reigns Within: Macros

Greetings,

Seb