Output alteryx formulas as excel comments?

[AkisM]

As far as I'm aware Alteryx can't write excel comments to specific cells, but I'm wondering if there's a functionality that helps excel users debug alteryx excel outputs, by letting alteryx show the formulas used for each cell in excel (without having to output them in separate columns/sheets. The first thing that came to my mind was cell comments, but maybe there's another way to achieve this?

Thanks in advance

[AngelosPachis]

Hi @AkisM ,

I suggest you have a look at the following two posts and try to reverse engineer them. 

The first one, inputs the raw formulas from an excel spreadsheet to Alteryx (you probably want to do the opposite)

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Alteryx-Excel-Import-Is-there-a-way-to...

The second one reads the comments from different cells in Alteryx (again, you would have to manipulate the xml in Alteryx to output the formulae as comments in your Excel spreadsheet)

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/comparing-column-headers-and-notes-in-...

I will have a closer look and try to help myself besides providing the links as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Angelos

[AkisM]

Thanks for your response @AngelosPachis , I read those links and they're interesting but they don't exactly provide what I'm looking for.

[TSP]

@AkisM could you post a sample of what you're trying to achieve?

Perhaps a made-up excel output and a sample workflow.

Thanks,

TSP

[AkisM]

Hi @TSP , all I'm trying to do is to output Excel formulas rather than just flat values. So that when the user mouses over a certain cell in the excel produced by Alteryx they can see the underlying formula instead of a plain value.

[TSP]

So most simplistically are you looking for Alteryx to output to cell A1 as follows:

=Sum(B1:D1)

?

[AkisM]

@TSP Exactly

[TSP]

There are two ways I’m interpreting your question:

1) you want to output formulas from alteryx into Excel - as I suggest in my post above. Meaning you’ll need to modify your workflow to be in a format [=] + [formula]

2) you want to have alteryx write its formula into excel. Meaning you want to take your current workflow and output a different presentation. 

I can’t think of a way to achieve option 2. In alteryx, each tool has input(s) and output(s). Whilst the activity in a tool equates to formulas, the data going in and out is flat values. 

If you’re able to narrow down which option you’re desiring that might help

[TSP]

I see you’re leaning towards my option a. If you could share a sample of what input, existing workflow and desired output you’d like to achieve, the community will be able to help. 
without a sample I can just say that it’s possible to output an [=] + [formula] presentation. 

[AkisM]

@TSP I'm looking for option 1. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it is as simple as just outputting "=A1+B1". I tried that in a workflow, and the resulting excel stasys stuck at showing the text value =A1+B1 instead of doing the formula. In addition the numbers are stored as text instead of numbers so even if the formula worked it would throw formatting errors in excel. And if I try to convert the columns to numbers, that doesn't work either because it also gets applied to "=A1+B1" which is clearly text, not a number.