Looking for hundreds of names in a large Excel file with a million rows and 10 columns

[tmyvnguyen]

Hello, 

Is it possible to look for 275 names across another very large Excel file that has over a million rows and 10 columns however, I only need to look into 5 free text columns such as Comments and Description for those names.  I'm sorry the file is around 165mb.  There are 2 Excel files.  One contains about 275 names.  The other contains a million rows and 10 columns, but I only need to search 5 free text column fields.  You can all the columns Comments, Description, text3, text4, and text5 to make it simple.  Is this possible?  or should I copy the 275 names tab over to the large data set or keep it 2 separate files?  or should I add the names columns as the 11th column to the larger dataset?

I'm currently doing this in Excel with VLOOKUP formula and it is literally taking several hours to look into one column. Please advise.  

Thank you in advance.  

Tommy

[gabrielvilella]

Please watch the interactive lessons on how to use the tools.

Find and replace: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/VLookUps-with-Designer/ta-p/80201

Join: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/Joining-Data/ta-p/76634 

All lessons: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Learning-Paths/Getting-Started-Learning-Path/ta-p/475117 

[Robin_McIntosh · Accepted solution]

@tmyvnguyen - Within the Text Input tool configuration, you can click on the folder to import a file such as Excel into the tool.  But you do not need to use the Text Input tool; I only did this so the example workflow I provided had data within it and not a useless to you link.  You can use the Input Data tool and link to your Excel file.

[tmyvnguyen]

Thanks.  The Input Data tool worked and I can see the results of the filters so now I can narrow down the events to review.  Also, after I ran the workflow, the filters found 3 records out of 55,378 records (see NarrativesWorkflowResult02.jpg attachment).  How can I just quickly see those 3 records?  I clicked on the Find Replace (3) link and nothing comes up.  Is it possible to view those 3 records found in the Alteryx software or do I have to export to Excel to see it?

[Robin_McIntosh]

@tmyvnguyen - Add a Filter tool and filter your desired field(s) Is Not Null.  If filter just a single field, use the Basic Filter.  If filtering based on multiple fields, use the Cutom Filter.

[tmyvnguyen]

Thank you!!  At first the advanced expression wasn't working when I was trying to find results that are not null so I was typing in [Aircraft] = Is not null.  When I switched back to Basic and picked "is not null" and then clicked on Custom filter again, the program inserted "!IsNull([Aircraft])" so then I followed through with OR for the other filters as shown below.  Now I'm seeing the 3 records. 

!IsNull([Aircraft])
OR !IsNull([Aircraft2])
OR !IsNull([Aircraft3])
OR !IsNull([Aircraft4])

Question: why isn't the program recognizing "IsNotNull"?