Output JSON to CSV adds unwanted quotes

[fpinchon]

That one really baffles me...

Is that a bug or a feature of the CSV Output tool?

I managed to generate a properly formatted JSON file, that I am exporting to CSV to be used outside of Alteryx, and for some reason I cannto comrehend, the OUtput process is adding quotes to my already quoted fileds?

Alteryx is showing in the display window data as it should be:

 

Yet, opening the actual CSV output, every field has been double double quoted!!

And same thing happens if I remove option 3 in the output: Delimiters set to blank...

I don't understand why Alteryx displays it correctly and outputs it wrong? Workflow v11.4 is attached...

Thanks in advance !

Frederic

[danilang · Accepted solution]

hi @fpinchon 

Indeed you can't win.  Like I mentioned in the last line of my post, you can't do it directly.  You have to build the line as a single field, including the comma and output just that one field

Something like this will output the format you're looking for.  Of course, since it doesn't conform to the CSV standard, you'll need a custom routine to parse it.

Dan

[cmcclellan]

Awesome effort @danilang I actually thought of this overnight, just wrote the workflow in Alteryx, got it working perfectly and you've posted almost the identical workflow 7hrs earlier :)

I think the BIG warning is - this is NOT a proper CSV file, most CSV readers will NOT read it properly so I'd very VERY cautious in using this in a production environment.

But it does answer the question posed ;)