Output Data Tool - Date as Column Header

[ckeihn]

I am trying to output data to an excel spreadsheet and for some reason the output tool is exporting the date column headers as Strings.  Is there a way to have Alteryx keep the headers as dates?

[NicoleJohnson · Accepted solution]

What do your date columns look like when you export? Are they formatted as "2017_08_21" or as "2017-08-21"?

If the situation is the former (which would be common since Alteryx likes to replace special characters with _ underscore when tools like Cross-Tab are used), then you can use a ReplaceChar() formula in the Dynamic Rename tool to replace the _ underscores with a - dash or a / slash before exporting, at which point your dates should come across in the right format as column headers.

Let us know if that works? If not, samples of your data/workflow, or at least screen shots of what you're seeing, should help us better troubleshoot... thanks!

NJ

[ckeihn]

I used the following formula to fix the header: DateTimeFormat([MyDate],"%m/%d/%Y").  Originally I had a lower case %y which exported the date with a year with 2 digits.  And as per your suggestion I also have a formula that replaces the underscores: REGEX_Replace([MyDate], '[-\s]', '_').

Thank you so much for your help NicoleJohnson!