Output Data to Excel is splitting Data into multiple worksheets

[Travis_Ratliff]

My original data starts with 40k+ rows that I then filter and change certain things on it and output all of those filters and changes to an excel worksheet. Everything runs fine except sometimes when it outputs the data to excel it will split certain filters into two worksheets. For example, I have a filter that shows all of the rows from a certain company that will show 13,902 rows and sometimes when I run the workflow it will be split into two worksheets and the two worksheets always have a different amount of rows each time. I just ran it twice and the first time Worksheet1 had 1491 and Worksheet2 had 12,411 the second run Worksheet1 had 3769 and Worksheet2 had 10133. Also, other times when I run the same workflow all of the data will be on one worksheet instead of splitting the data. 

Any help on this would be beneficial.

Thanks

[Emmanuel_G]

Hi @Travis_Ratliff 

Is it possible to have a sample of data ,workflow to test and desired output you want from that for more details please ?

[Travis_Ratliff]

This is a very basic workflow of what the original is but this one filters the input data and then outputs the data to excel. Sometimes when running the workflow the output will put the bigger data set into two different worksheets with a total of 3 worksheets. 2 for the the bigger filtered data set and 1 for the smaller dataset. Ideally there would only be 2 worksheets, one for the bigger data set and one for the smaller data set.

Let me know if this makes sense or if there are any more questions.

Thanks

[DataNath · Accepted solution]

@Travis_Ratliff how long is your workflow taking to run? As you're using DateTimeNow() to form part of the naming here, this goes down to seconds in terms of granularity. As you can see in my example, I've purposefully blown up my data so it takes a little longer to run and the sheet becomes split where the time ticks over from 2022-09-26 16:18:48 to 2022-09-26 16:18:49, one second later whilst going through the formula:

Perhaps to avoid this you could use DateTimeToday() to keep it on a daily level, or if time is required use DateTimeTrim() to roll the level of detail up a little bit (i.e. to the minute or hour):

https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/datetime-functions

[Emmanuel_G]

@Travis_Ratliff 

First, it is better to switch to overwrite a file as shown in the screenshot below. In this way, with each execution, your excel file is updated.

Second point, why use two output tools when you want to export the same data? The separation filter is normally not necessary if the formulas following the output anchors T and F are the same. Unless you wanted to do something else or something escapes me.

[Travis_Ratliff]

@DataNath  Thanks, this fixed the issue. It was splitting from the second being different like you said in your reply.