Reading 90 File

[MD2050]

GM Everyone-

Would like to ask if there is a way to read a 90 File(.90 extension file)  in Alteryx or an alternate process so that i can read the file and output it as a CSV ? We have program which exports out a .90 file which i convert in a CSV manually . The way i do this is by opening a blank excel file and then opening the .90 file directly inside excel , it takes me to the Text Import Wizard to parse the data systematically . It will be really helpful if i can get to automate this process . Unfortunately i couldn't share the file - Apologies. 

Thank you very much. 

[BenMoss · Accepted solution]

Hi!

Yes this is likely possible, for example you can input a tableau workbook (.twb) file by reading it as a undelimtied text file.

I outline the process for inputting a .twb file into alteryx in one of my blogs here: https://benjnmoss.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/how-to-import-a-twb-in-alteryx/

I imagine you can do exactly the same process with a .90 file.

Let me know if it works.

Ben

[tom_montpool]

If you can open your .90 file in Excel and then parse it, I would expect that you can open the .90 file in Alteryx using the .CSV format but specifying \0 as the delimiter instead of a comma.

This allows Alteryx to read the contents of your file into a single field, which you can then parse with tools like TextToColumns, Formula, RegEx, etc.

If your .90 file is using some delimiter other than a comma, you can specify the proper delimiter instead of a comma or the \0. For example, I sometimes get files delimited with the ^ character...

[MarqueeCrew]

@BenMoss,

Isn't it time for you to go to Italy yet?

[MD2050]

Hello @BenMoss-

Thank you very much for your help. I was bale to read the 90 File as a CSV and it worked great. I had to tweak the configuration a bit to read all the data (46 columns) . I read the file using "\0" delimiter followed by using a text to column tool and using "\t" to parse the actual data, unfortunately the column heads didn't had any spaces or any sort of delimiter through which i could separate them to individual column headers corresponding to the actual data fields - so i had to filter out the first row. Your blog really helped.

Thank you very much.