Ignoring Missing Data Connection for Union Tool

[umairmesiya1]

Hi All!

I am building a workflow that takes 3 different types of excel sheets and does a union on their data. I want to make it so that if any of the sheets is missing, it should still run. 

Currently, if any one of the input files is missing, my workflow outputs and error, and doesn't union the other two files.

Is there a way around this?

Thanks!

[margaret-hawk]

Did you ever get an answer to this?  I am trying to do the exact same thing (except my input is SQL directly from the database).

[peterg1]

I've been working on Alteryx for 3 months and have one workflow in production.

I had a similar challenge with having my workflow, with unions, not creating output due to missing file(s).

My workflow utilizes the input data tool that retrieves files from a folder using a wildcard for the filename.

For example:

C:\spreadsheet\input\abc200*.csv

There can be none or several of the files with prefix abc200.  All have the same headers and structures so if there are several it pulls in the data into one set of results.

If there aren't any files with abc200 prefix I experienced a failure.  So I created a template sub directory that contains the same column headers without data as follows:

C:\spreadsheet\input\templates\abc200template.csv

Then  on the Input Data tool I checked #3 box - Search SubDirs

This way it will always have a file and avoid the missing file error.

I know it is very simplistic but it is a quick fix that may get you out of a jam.