Understand error targeting RENDER tool

[pgayath1]

Hi,

As per the Errorsnapshot file, receiving error only for specific input  say 'LL3' on the Render tool.

I tried changing the custom size and file format. But still, can't avoid the error.

This workflow has the requirement of generating the reports based on inputs like LL1, LL2, LL3, LL4 so on and so forth. I am getting attached error only for the input LL3 using interface tools.

When I hardcoded the input say 'LL3' and tried retrieving the data from database, I am able to pull the related records and was working fine.

Can the error be interpreted and provide appropriate solution to overcome it?

Thank you. 

[CharlieS]

Hi @pgayath1 

The good news is that the error message gives some details on where to start tracking down the problem. It says:

"Render (71): Exception parse error line: 31 column: 156679 Invalid character (Unicode: Ox1A)"

First step, let's take a look at that character. Let's write the text content to a csv file so we can open it in a text editor. Next to the Render tool, add an Output tool to write a .csv file with no delimiter ("\0" is the Alteryx way to set that). Note it may be necessary to change the "Code Page"/encoding setting on the Output tool for this character to render. UTF-16 might by my next suggestion.

Now we can open the file in a program like Notepad++, which can tell us row/column position numbers to track down where this "invalid character" is. If you post this area of text, maybe the Community can help guide to next steps. 

[pgayath1]

@Charlie, thank you for the steps to identify the invalid character.

FORD SPAIN & CREDIT  MADRID

In the above line, between 'CREDIT MADRID',  there is an invalid character. How to omit that character and generate the report using Render tool.

I couldn't attach the .txt file for the reference since it holds invalid character. But could attach the spread sjeet

[CharlieS]

Nice work! Now let's get rid of that character.

Before the Render, or even the table creation, this character exists in the data, let's address it before it goes into any reporting tools. Here's some handy RegEx I learned from @MarqueeCrew:

REGEX_Replace([Field_1],"[^ -~]", '$1')

[Field1] is the field of data where this character originally occurs

[...] is the set of values

[^..] is then, the values not in the set

[^ -~] uses (space) followed by a dash followed by a tilde is then, the values not in the range of (space) to ~ (tilde)

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Elegantly-remove-all-ASCII-characters-... 

Use this expression in a Formula tool, and update the [Field1] to the name appropriate to your data. After this formula is applied, the output should be "FORD SPAIN & CREDIT MADRID". Now that this character is removed, you should be able to go on and report as you desire. 

Happy Alteryx-ing!

[MarqueeCrew · Accepted solution]

@CharlieS !

 You read my post!   Here's a little background.  

i saw a t-shirt someone was wearing and it said:

[^ -~]

i got it and committed it to memory immediately. 

cheers,

 mark

[pgayath1]

Thanks a lot, it worked.