Hyper input - Field ... was truncated

[calloni]

Hello

I am using the new option to use hyper file in the input tool. Most of the times when I do this I get that some fields in  the hyper file are being truncated at the input tool step.

Is there a way to go around this? Is this a bug?

Note the hyper file that I am using as input was created by Alteryx in another workflow.

Thanks in advance

Rodrigo

[Loic]

@calloni 

* in which version of Alteryx was the hyper file created? There were some issues in the past in how the hyper file was created. for testing/troubleshooting purposes only try to have a match between the version of Designer/Server which created the hyper file and the one consuming it.

* can you send us a mock up version of the data in which you can reproduce the issue? we might be able to find the cause or help with a workaround if we can play with an actual hyper file

(you could throw some data into excel, create an hyper file with Alteryx and play with that)

[calloni]

Thanks @Loic 

The hyper file was created in the same version I am consuming it in the input tool (2019.4.4.20206).

I think if the hyper file columns are bigger than 255 characters Alteryx is then truncating them. I tested adding a select tool just after the Input and all string fields were set as 255 size:

The problem is that the error is in the input step itself. When it gets to the second tool the data is already truncated.

Rodrigo

[Loic]

Thanks. @calloni 

I reproduced it.

See attached. 2 fields with 1071 and 454 characters. Hyper file created file. when used in Alteryx the Input Data tool changes it to 255 characters and it is truncated. Let me see of it is a limitation or a bug.

[calloni]

The metadata of the Output tool? Hum I have this in the configuration? Where can I see the metadata?

Rodrigo

[calloni]

Thanks Loic

I hope it is a bug not a limitation.

Fingers crossed this can be improved in next release.

Rodrigo

[Loic]

@calloni that is a limitation for now in the current way the feature has been developed. Product Manager confirmed that to me. I am trying to see if there is something on the roadmap to support strings with more than 255 characters for hyper files.

The only workaround is to split in the hyper file the string into as many parts as there are multiple of 255 and then aggregate back in Alteryx. 

[Loic]

@calloni - reason for 255 characters is that we need to set a limit. We are willing to increase it to a higher number (but it needs to be fixed). what would you like the max number of characters to be? 

[DavidWalker]

to be clear ... the output tool does NOT truncate the strings when writing to a hyper file.  verify by opening the hyper file in tableau desktop (see snip below). 

the input tool, on the other hand, *is* responsible for truncating all strings to 255 characters.  why?  and why would there need to be a limit for reading a hyper file vs a, for example, yxdb file?  there shouldn't be a limit other than the max length for the string data type.

[brianwolfe1986]

I will echo DavidWalker's comments: the Output tool is functioning as expected by not truncating strings and writing full values to the Hyper file. The Input tool should not function as a truncation mechanism for the data source it's pulling from. If a defined limit is required as you mention @Loic, I would suggest defining this dynamically by looking at the data set and setting the limit based on the longest string value present in the data source for each field.

Please address this issue as the Hyper input functionality (which I was greatly looking forward to making use of) is useless to me until it is resolved.