Output Join Tool's Left and Inner Join anchors to different tabs in Excel file

[fishcake]

Pretty new to Alteryx and I am struggling to do a fairly simple task.

I want to save the output from both 'L' and 'J' anchor of the Join tool to different tabs in the same Excel file, but this would give me error of 'The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file.' I read up a bit about the Block Until Done tool but I don't think that can solve my need of directly using the output from the Join Tool.

So I guess I need to look for a way to write the Join Tool multiple anchors' output to different tabs in a sequential way. Advice would be much appreciated!

output Join Tool anchor to multiple tabs

[atcodedog05 · Accepted solution]

Hi @fishcake 

you need to use Block until done tool. Here is a recourse which will help you out in the task.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/How-to-write-to-multiple-tabs-separ...

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/Tool-Mastery-Block-Until-Done/ta-p/...

Workflow would be like below:

Hope this helps 🙂

If this post helps you please mark it as solution. And give a like if you dont mind 😀👍

[MarqueeCrew · Accepted solution]

@fishcake ,

 here's a trick:

 take the J Output anchor to excel and also to ac summarize tool.  Count any field.  Take the  L anchor to an APPEND FIELDS tool and buying that count to the source (bottom).  Now Deselect the count field.  Take the Output to the same excel. 

the reason why this works is that no second write to excel can happen until you've read the j data.  

cheers,

 mark

[Blake]

Hey @fishcake - 

Another option would be to use the reporting tools. 

See the attached workflow for an example using the Table, Layout, and Render tools. 

You can also find some helpful videos on the reporting tools here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZIpnT5S1o7CWHjOybSiItWvtx0LHolgX

Good luck! 

[grazitti_sapna]

Hi @fishcake,

You can make use of the Block Until Done tool on one of the ports(either L or R) so that both the processes don't write it in a go.

I hope this helps.

Thanks!

[RolandSchubert · Accepted solution]

Hi @fishcake ,

if the Block Until Done tool does not work for any reason, you could use a Formula tool on both "L" and "J" anchor, assign the "sheet name" to the data, use a Union tool to combine both outputs and use "Take File/Table Name From Field" to direct the rows to the right sheet:

Hope this is helpful.

Best,

Roland

[atcodedog05]

Happy to help 🙂 @fishcake 

Cheers and Happy Analyzing 😀

Feel free to reach out if you face any issues 🙂

[Sagar_Srihari]

Thanks Kiran, this was a great help 😀

[atcodedog05]

Happy to hear it was helpful to you @Sagar_Srihari (Roronoa Zoro) 😁