Handling Dynamic File Formats in Alteryx: Conditional Logic for Header Detection

[Mhmd]

Hello Alteryx Community,

I’ve been working with a workflow that processes files with dynamic formats, and I’m facing an issue with identifying whether the first row of the incoming dataset is a header row or an empty row. The inconsistency in the file format causes errors downstream in my workflow. Sometimes the first row is empty, and the actual headers start from the second row, while other times, the headers start from the first row directly. My workflow is configured to skip the first row and dynamically rename fields, but when the data is clean, it throws errors like “Column A not found.”

I’d like to add conditional logic to my workflow to detect whether the first row is empty or contains headers and then process the file accordingly.

Is there a better way to handle such dynamic file formats in Alteryx?

[BransonJamesFarley]

Could you try using control containers? That way you check at the beginning of the workflow if your data is starting on the first or second row and then having the rest of the workflow continue from that point? 

[BransonJamesFarley · Accepted solution]

Would something like this work for you? 

[Mhmd · Accepted solution]

Thank you. I also figured out another solution:

1. Uncheck the option "First row contains field names."

2. Remove any null rows.

3. Use the filter tool to check for empty rows.

4. Use the filter tool to check the second column for empty cells (since the first column contains the title of the report).

5. Apply dynamic renaming.