Replace Name in Multiple Fields

@shaheer The Regex_Replace() formula you used is not correct. I provided a sample workflow for your reference

Name_1019.yxmd

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davidskaife

Hi @shaheer

You have the tool set to only Numeric (the default)

@shaheer looking at your second screenshot, the reason these fields aren't appearing is because you have the Select X Fields: option set to numeric. If you go into that dropdown and choose 'All types of', or string etc then you'll be able to see your fields.

Even when I set it to All types, none show up.

Nevermind, I just had to refresh and they appeared. Still, my if statement to change the current field is not correct:

IF [_CurrentField_]=="The Rock" THEN "Dwayne Johnson" ENDIF

How do I fix this?

@shaheer are you wanting to conduct the replace on the name that comes out of the regex_replace formula? Or replace it before it goes into this? If it's the former, you can use a formula like:

IF REGEX_REPLACE(.......) = "The Rock" THEN "Dwayne Johnson" ELSE... ENDIF

No, so the regex replace formula I have takes names that are in "[firstname], [lastname]" format and changes them to "[lastname] [firstname", so removing the comma and switching the names around.

After all of the names have been switched, I want to then change the case where a name is, for example, "The Rock" to "Dwayne Johnson".

@shaheer Use the formula tool instead of Multi-Row tool to make the latest change you mentioned

@shaheer ok that makes sense. In that case, you'd want to use a formula like I mentioned above, so it'd be:

IF <insert your regex_replace code here> = "The Rock" THEN "Dwayne Johnson" ELSE <insert your regex_replace code here> ENDIF

What this will do is tell Alteryx: if after doing the regex_replace, the result is "The Rock", change it to "Dwayne Johnson", otherwise leave it as the result of the regex_replace.

What I would say is that this approach is fine for one/two names. However, if you've got a bunch of names that you need to change then I'd recommend using a lookup table with the Find & Replace tool, rather than writing an enormous if statement.

I guess I could, but I thought it would be easier to use this tool because in the formula tool I would have to add several formulas each related to a certain column.

Either way, my if statement is what the main problem is.

@shaheer Can you provide a sample input and expected output result?

For example, input is:

Preferred Full Name	Age	Name2	Name3	Experience (years)
Rock, The	40	Cates, Anna	James, Henry	5
Gunn, James	50	Rock, The	Allan, Barbara	4

After my regex replace formula Regex_Replace([_CurrentField_],'(\w+),\s?(\w+)','$2 $1') which is used in the multi field formula tool and selects the columns with names, output would look like:

Name1	Age	Name2	Name3	Experience (years)
The Rock	40	Anna Cates	Henry James	5
James Gunn	50	The Rock	Barbara Allan	4

Next, I've tried using the formula tool like so:

Which should change "The Rock" to "Dwayne Johnson" (I am having trouble with the syntax). I will then apply this same formula to all other columns by pressing the + symbol and changing the column name accordingly.

Hey @shaheer, this is what I mentioned in my previous post and gets your desired answer:

I'd definitely recommend sticking to your current approach of Multi-Field formula - doing this with a regular formula tool several times is way more inefficient and there's no need.

One thing to note is what I mentioned before - if there's a lot of names that you want to replace then I'd recommend doing a lookup table with find & replace rather than relying on an if statement.

Swap The Rock in regex_replace.yxmd

@shaheer The Regex_Replace() formula you used is not correct. I provided a sample workflow for your reference

Name_1019.yxmd