How can I use Blob outputs on different tabs of the same excel sheet

[Kartik21]

I am using blob inputs and outputs to copy the exact formatting of manual outputs. However, the problem I am facing is that I am able to get only one tab in the output file whenever I am trying to get the formatting done for two different tabs in the same Alteryx output, but every time Alteryx is only giving only one tab, i.e. only that tab for which I am running the container and it removes the tab of previous executed tab in the Alteryx output.

Please suggest solutions for this.

[apathetichell]

Hi. What you are saying doesn't make sense. Blob input/output copies an entire file. It doesn't care about how many tabs are there. It does not combine tabs. It does not seperate tabs. It copies files. It doesn't care if they are Excel files or csv files.

[SPetrie]

By chance do you have your output tool set to "overwrite file" instead of "overwrite sheet or range"?

[Kartik21]

@apathetichell  How can different tabs format can be copied in such case?

[apathetichell · Accepted solution]

move both tabs to your original template. now original template has two tabs. your new copy will have two tabs.

[Kartik21]

@apathetichell Thank you for your valuable suggestions. If you can share some examples of multiple tabs formatting in a single excel file, that would be of a great help.

[apathetichell · Accepted solution]

@Kartik21 do you mean an Alteryx workflow which deals with two tabs - or do you mean an excel file with two tabs? Asking because the later is kind of basic.

[Kartik21]

@apathetichell I mean Alteryx workflow involving blob tool which deals with two tabs formatting in one excel file.

[SPetrie]

I think there may be a misunderstanding on what the blob tool is doing. The blob is used to reference and move a file without opening it. An input tool pointing to an excel file will import the file and strip all formatting, the blob tool will bring in the binary data of the file container without modifying the contents because its not actually opening the file. You use the blob tool to take a template/formatted excel file, create a copy and save it to a destination location unchanged. You can then use standard output tools to write to specific ranges within that copied excel file so your original template stays unchanged and ready for use again.

There is no writing to the excel within the blob file.

Here is an older example of a workflow that uses a template excel file and blob tool to deal with the template with conditional formatting. I hope this helps clarify how the blob tools are used. It was created with an older version so no control containers or anything and its a bit messy, but it does output to multiple sheets that are preformatted.

It copies the template to a temp location with the blob, saves data to the different sheets with regular output tools, then uses the blob tools again to move the file from the temp location to the final output with final file name.

template beforeoutput file after