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 take a look at the Find and Replace or the Join tool. Those are the equivalents to the VLOOKUP and it will take much less time to process. 

https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/find-replace-tool 

https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/join-tool 

[binuacs]

@tmyvnguyen can you provide a sample input file and expected output files?

[Robin_McIntosh]

@tmyvnguyen - Here's a sample workflow using the Find/Replace Tool.

[tmyvnguyen]

Hello, thank you for your responses.  I was able to find a similar file with the same needs. I have an aviation accident file and within it, I have case numbers and info on the 1st tab called narratives and the 2nd tab called References which includes a list of states and aircraft unique numbers.  

Please help me find all aircraft in the References tab column B in the narratives tab columns C,D,E, and F.  I need to locate if there is a match of any of the aircraft in the narratives.  Thank you.

Tommy

[tmyvnguyen]

Good Morning,

I forgot to mention regarding an output file.  Excel file will work for me.  If there is a better output, please let me know.  

Thank you,

Tommy

[Robin_McIntosh]

@tmyvnguyen - Have you looked at the workflow example I provided above?  You will need additional Find/Replace tools after the first one for additional fields that will look like this.

[tmyvnguyen]

Hi Robin, thank you for your help.  Is it possible you can send me the workflow using the data I provided?  

[Robin_McIntosh]

@tmyvnguyen - Have you looked at the Find/Replace tool link above provided by @gabrielvilella?  Have you tried using this tool within your workflow?  You haven't provided anything as far as what you've tried and/or issues you are running into with the tool; just asking for someone to do it for you.  I've provided an example above as well as a screenshot of using the Find/Replace tool multiple times on the same dataset.  What does your workflow look like (even if you have to dummy up data) and the issue(s) you are running into?

[tmyvnguyen]

I did look at your example and gave it a try and the Text Input tools I added to the canvas are blank.  You show 2 Text Input tool in your diagram.  How do I get my data into the tools?  Then I can try the multiple filters.  I am very new to Alteryx so I am still learning the tools icons and where to find it.