I am trying to read a pipe delimited file and I am receiving the error above.
The header row is 1,000 characters and contains 60 fields.
There is a total of 24,173 rows in the file.
The error message doesn't make much sense. Is there an upper limit on the number of fields in a delimited data file?
FWIW. Excel has no trouble reading and correctly parsing the data.
Solved! Go to Solution.
Just be a little wary of re-saving CSV from Excel. For example, I've lost time values from date-time fields doing this, for example (or it's been rounded to the hour or something). Great that it's solved, but just beware that a re-save can introduce issues if the default formatting input is set and drops data on the re-save due to pushing it back into CSV-capable formats from an excel format view. So just keep an eye on it is all I'm saying I suppose :)
thanks, i will be testing the dataset tomorrow fully. So i will bear that in mind when looking through the results.
Hi ,
I am new to Alteryx and i gone through this scenario. I got output but how to add column name in output result.
is there any function calling to add column name dynamically. pls find the data and result screen
column names should be EMPNO ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL COMM DEPTNO instead of 1-8.
Thanks
sreeni
There appears to be an extra column in the data without a header, but if you know what it is you can rename that one in the select tool. The rest can be dynamically renamed using the Dynamic Rename Tool. I've taken your sample data and packaged it up with a workflow that shows you how it's done. See attached.
One of the benefits of using Alteryx and doing this pipe delimited work around is that you're saving time and steps if this is a file you're reading in regularly you might not want to go the save as CSV route in addition to the potential data issues you might introduce after opening it in Excel and the work of opening it and going through each field to say it's text to prevent those issues is a bit time consuming. At least for me it was with 70 columns in my file.
With 5 tools you can do it and you only have to edit a couple of items for any new file or if there's a change to the existing file. Just look at the count of pipes and update the Text to Columns tool with that number and you're done if it's a relatively clean file. If there are missing headers in the data or extra delimiters you have a couple more steps but you can see them and clearly make the changes to adjust the workflow. If there are no changes you set this up once and you're good to run.
See below and attached workflow.
That's really a good solution, worked like a charm. Thank you! @SophiaF
Hi,
After lots of reading and looking at the complex solutions and testing pipe delimiters, I just tried changing the field length and it worked. Maybe this will help others.
E
I think they finally added the pipe delimited option, it wasn't there when these other solutions were proposed and in one of my posts here I even ranted a bit like why isn't pipe delimited just an option so kudos to the product team for listening and making our lives easier. Heck now I can just drag a pipe delimited file into the workflow and click on it and change the delimiter and boom you're done!