R Code running differently in Alteryx

[rnewby]

I am attempting to turn an R script that I have into an Alteryx flow. Unfortunately, I can't share the data behind this, but I changed it a bit so I can share the following R code. My issue is that this code doesn't do the correct things in Alteryx. It works perfectly fine in R Studio, however.

Note: I think stringr and Hmisc are the only packages I use in this section of code, although I have about seven packages read in altogether for this script.

Going into this step of the code, a sample of the column headers look like this:

[1] "ABCD.ns1:awardID.ns1:awardContractID.ns1:companyID"

[2] "ABCD.ns1:awardID.ns1:awardContractID.ns1:modNumber"

[3] "ABCD.ns1:typeID.ns1:referenceID.ns1:companyID"
[4] "ABCD.ns1:typeID.ns1:referenceID.ns1:companyCity"
[5] "ABCD.ns1:purchaserInformation.ns1:shippingCompanyID"
[6] "ABCD.ns1:purchaserInformation.ns1:shippingCompanyID.departmentID"

After running this code in R Studio, the columns look like:

[1] "AwardContractID_companyID(ABCD)"

[2] "AwardContractID_modNumber(ABCD)"

[3] "ReferenceID_companyID(ABCD)"

[4] "ReferenceID_companyCity(ABCD)"

[5] "ShippingCompanyID(ABCD)"

[6] "ShippingCompanyID.departmentID(ABCD)"

However, after running the same code in the R tool in Alteryx, the columns look like:

[1] "ABCD.Ns1.Awardid.Ns1:Awardcontractid.Ns1.Companyid(ABCD)"

[2] "ABCD.Ns1.Awardid.Ns1:Awardcontractid.Ns1.Modnumber(ABCD)"

[3] "ABCD.Ns1.Typeid.Ns1.Referenceid.Ns1.Companyid(ABCD)"
[4] "ABCD.Ns1.Typeid.Ns1.Referenceid.Ns1.Companycity(ABCD)"
[5] "ABCD.Ns1.Purchaserinformation.Ns1.Shippingcompanyid(ABCD)" 
[6] "ABCD.Ns1.Purchaserinformation.Ns1.Shippingcompanyid.Departmentid(ABCD)" 

There must be some reason why Alteryx isn't running this correctly, but I can't figure it out. The rest of my R script seems to work fine. It is only this section that is causing me problems.

i = 0
ind = c()
name_list <- c()
for (name in colnames(Main_Data)) {
  i = i + 1
  x <- str_detect(name, "^ABCD")
  if (x == TRUE) {
    a <- str_detect(name, "awardContractID")
    b <- str_detect(name, "referenceID")
    if (a == TRUE) {
      ind <- c(ind,i)
      y <- unlist(strsplit(name, split = ":", fixed = TRUE))
      z <- y[length(y)]
      name2 <- paste0("awardContractID_",z,"(ABCD)")
      name_list <- c(name_list, name2)
    } else if (b == TRUE) {
      ind <- c(ind,i)
      y <- unlist(strsplit(name, split = ":", fixed = TRUE))
      z <- y[length(y)]
      name2 <- paste0("referenceID_",z,"(ABCD)")
      name_list <- c(name_list, name2)
    } else {
      ind <- c(ind,i)
      y <- unlist(strsplit(name, split = ":", fixed = TRUE))
      z <- y[length(y)]
      name2 <- paste0(z,"(ABCD)")
      name_list <- c(name_list, name2)
    }
  }
}
i <- 1
for (j in ind) {
  colnames(Main_Data)[j] <- name_list[i]
  i = i + 1
}

colnames(Main_Data) <- capitalize(colnames(Main_Data))

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[DavidxL]

I'm not aware of any alternatives provided by Alteryx (not counting the other modes available to the read.Alteryx function). It seems to use a package called AlteryxRDataX but no information that package is shared, unlike some of the other Alteryx packages which they've hosted on their Github. If you're looking for more you might have to resort to calling R using the Cmd tool. 

[JohnJPS]

If desired, you could use a Block Until Done tool; in the first output, write to a .csv file; then in the 2nd have your R tool and user readr there (and a delete at the end to remove the file once finished).