Having my output file replace my input file.

[mfranchino21]

Hello and thank you for the help. 

I have a workflow that has an Excel file input, and I want the output to be the same Excel file, with updated data from the workflow. 

See the example below;

Input (Excel File name 'TEST'): 

Food	Color
Apple	Red
Banana	Yellow
Ketchup	Red

then, my alteryx workflow will remove any food that isn't "Red," and my output would be: 

Output: 

Food	Color
Apple	Red
Ketchup	Red

Is there any way to have this output be put into the original Excel File 'TEST' where the original data was. So now in the file 'TEST', I would see my output table rather than my input table. 

Thanks!

[apathetichell]

I do not believe you can do this in Alteryx 2023X because of "stuff." - but otherwise this is pretty straight forward - just make sure that you are using overwriter/sheet or range in your output data.

[Swathi · Accepted solution]

Simple overwrite File(Remove) wouldnt do the job. You need to have the Block until run tool in order to perform your process.

with Block until run, Alteryx will lock the file, write data and then unlock the file. 

Try using like the below 

Please mark it a solution if you are happy :) 

[KGT]

A clarification on the above. The Solution @Swathi (not sure what's changed to link usernames) gave is the correct solution to achieve what you want in this situation but may not always work.

The tool is called "Block Until Done", and will not lock the file, wait for it to be written etc. The Block Until Done (BUD), will hold all data until it has finished receiving data, then start outputting through one of the outputs, once the last record has left that output, it will start outputting through the next output etc. It will not wait for processing on those outputs to complete. I specify "one of the outputs" as debate raged for years on whether the outputs were in order, but I have always seen them to be output 1, then 2, then 3.

In Alteryx, older tools know what's happening up stream from them (Not sure whether this changed with AMP), however a single tool has no idea what is happening downstream of it and so doesn't know whether processing is still happening.

[apathetichell]

@Swathi - this is file size dependent. For smaller files input/formula/output 100% works.

@mfranchino21 -  for a fool proof fix - you'd need to use a batch macro which would release your file from memory prior to the output data tool.