Inputs to Drop Down tool

Question

Hi,

I am working on an analytic app and wanted to set a drop down tool. I am using a "Text Input" tool to set the values (dates) that will show up in the drop down menu and noticed that the drop down tool lists the fields and not the values from the input tool. I realize I can just create a bunch of fields with the values I want listed but an easier way would be if the values of a given field would be listed in the drop down menu - does anyone know if this is possible?

(I tried listing the values and then using the cross tab tool but when doing this the hyphen in the dates is switched to an underscore)

patrick_digan · Accepted Answer

@cesar_castellon The Drop Down has a number of different ways that it can display data. For your use case, I would suggest you either use 1) External Source or 2) Manually set values.

The external source would involve writing your text input to a file before your workflow and then reading in that file in the drop down. You would want to make sure you have a field called Name and a field called Value.

The manually set values option would let you type things right into the drop down tool itself, separating the name and value with a : character.

I've got an idea posted for adding another option called data from connected tool to basically do what you're intending.

scottj · Accepted Answer

Your method mentioned using the Transform tool is right on, just use a Dynamic Rename tool to fix the underscores.  I have attached an example.