Null Values Help

[jmmart08]

Hi All

I have a workflow built in which I am comparing multiple excel files and joining them so I can find any potential differences in values on certain criteria.  I am running into an issue on 1 of the files where if the value in the interest column (sample file attached) has a decimal that starts with ".0" I get a null value at the end.  And this obviously then shows up as a difference between the files.  I am not sure why this happens because this entire column under Interest are all formulals but if the decimal is .25 or .40 or .12 there are no issues.  It looks like the import of the decimals that start out with .0 come into the Alteryx Workflow as an example as 2.7777777776E2 as seen on the attached.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.  Thank you!

[echuong1 · Accepted solution]

It's due to the datatype that your value is being read with scientific notation. You should most likely filter any additional rows out first, but once you have narrowed down your population to your actual values, use a Select tool to change the datatype to numeric. Float should work in this case. If you want to round your values to a specific decimal precision value, you can use fixed decimal.

Row #7 was originally 2.7777777777777776E-2 and is now 0.027778.

Hope this helps!

[jmmart08]

Hi echuong1

Thank you for this information.  What happens in my workflow is I have a filter tool with a lot of does not equal information.  I did this to narrow down all of the blanks to the data I need.  I do not know if this is the best way, but the issue when I change the values to float now is the filter tool with the does not equal filters shows an error of "invalid type in operator !=".  For example (I have changed the data on the example I gave just to not share actual accounts, etc) I have a set data set of about 22 different accounts so I set a filter to say the Portfolio column does not equal ABCD1 and so on to get rid of all the blank data.

Any suggestions on how I can resolve the Invalid type in operator issue if I change the data to numeric?

Thank you very much

[echuong1]

I'm not sure I quite understand your question.

Are you able to upload your workflow so I can take a look?

[jmmart08]

I re-read your first reply.  I understand now.  I changed my filter to !IsNull to filter out everything other than my needed values.  This works great!  Thank you very much for your quick replies!!