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

[TSP]

Instead of beginning your formula with = , begin it with \

then within excel do a find and replace for \ to =. 

Ensure your numeric fields are set to a numeric type within alteryx prior to exporting 

[TSP]

Here's how I got it to work.

This method will work with a single find & replace, providing you use a character that doesn't appear elsewhere within your data (e.g '\').

Hope you find this helpful.

[TSP]

@AkisM @Did this solution work for you? If so please consider marking it to help others. 

TSP

[AkisM]

Hi @TSP , thanks for your time, that looks like a potentially helpful bandaid fix but I am looking for something that does not require the user editing anything in the produced file

[TSP]

@AkisM 
The above approach would work if you wrote a VBA script to do the find and replace upon opening the excel file. look on StackOverflow etc for guidance on that. 

in reality you’re asking the impossible from alteryx in isolation. Your solution will require a workaround in excel too. Alteryx outputs flat values which is how excel will interpret the data without any prompts. 

[AkisM]

@TSP But even in the find replace method that you provide, there is another issue. You said "ensure all numeric fields are set as numeric before exporting with alteryx"

What happens in the case where column A has numeric values, but at the last row of column A i need a formula displaying the sum? Alteryx will convert that cell to NULL because "/SUM(A1:A5)" is not a numeric value. So there will be nothing to use find/replace on, and no formula.

[TSP · Accepted solution]

@AkisM 

I’d say do you really need the formulas there as you’ve described ?

Can you consider writing your data to a separate sheet, and using queries/pivots/formulas referencing your data sheet to produce your calculations in a fresh sheet. You may find your formulas are more manageable in a separate location which won’t require Alteryx to produce. 

if you’re able to share a sample worksheet it would be easier to demonstrate there. 

TSP

[AkisM]

@TSP I have indeed considered that, but because the nature of the data is dynamic (rows will be moving up and down, so the formulas that are referencing specific cells might end up picking up wrong values when that data is moved around) it gets complicated. In any case, since you ruled out the possibility of alteryx showing formulas, I guess i have to examine other routes.