How to ignore empty column in Excel?

[wongkenny240]

My Excel files have some empty columns which Alteryx recognise it columns (same as F1 and F2 below but there are thousands of it). It's causing my workflow running very slow. How can I ignore/remove all those columns ?

X	Y	F1	F2

Thanks,

Kenny

[PhilipMannering · Accepted solution]

You can select columns you want to import by appending the Sheet Name with "$A:C" for example.

You are also prompted to select a Range of Cells upon connecting to a file. Simply just use Letters to specify the sheet names.

[atcodedog05]

Hi @wongkenny240 

You can data cleanse tool and below config.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Qiu]

@wongkenny240 
If they are really of Null, then Cleansing Tool shoud do it.

[PhilipMannering]

@Qiu But the fact that 100s of columns may be being brought into the data stream will still slow down Alteryx. 

@wongkenny240 You might also try and remove all formatting from the empty cells in the Excel Workbook (as a last resort)

[T_Willins]

If these don't work you could use a Dynamic Select tool set to Select via a Formula and use the formula !REGEX_Match([Name], "F\d+"), but the other two suggested methods are simpler as one addresses the data up front on Input and the other removes any completely null field regardless of name.

[TeePee]

@Qiu thank you!  This worked for me. 

My null columns are non-consecutive so I can't exclude them using the input tool by defining a range. 

I haven't needed this functionality before and had "tool blindness" so didn't remember it was an option in the data cleanse tool even though I use this tool very often.   Thanks again!