Copy and Paste Data Directly Into Canvas

[Tjohns263]

It would be great if Alteryx allowed users to copy and paste data directly from excel into the workflow canvas as a text input. Sometimes I create quick mapping tables in excel that I do not want to save on my desktop or shared drive as it is a quick fix or solution. Tableau allows users to copy and paste data sets directly into a sheet for use. Can we make this happen??

Yours Truly,

Trevor

[Claje]

Hi,

It adds one more step to what you're looking to do, but if you copy your data from your excel workbook, and then insert a Text input tool into the canvas, the Text input tool has a "clipboard" option which will paste your clipboard in appropriately.

Does that do what you're looking for?

[Tjohns263]

Thanks, 

              I had no idea you could do that. This is helpful!

[mcarrico]

Another helpful tip if you are doing this is using a Dynamic Rename to get the field headers correct.  So if you copy over data into a text input:

You can get the field names right by dropping a Dynamic Rename afterwards and configuring it to take Field Names from First Row of Data:

Tends to be a little quicker than manually copy/pasting a bunch of field names into the headers.

[Tjohns263]

Hey - Thanks! I am familiar with the dynamic rename tool, but that is a good point. I probably would have copied and pasted the headers! :)

[Claje]

Just wanted to add a quick note and a screenshot, which may or may not add some more information.

If you click into the header for "Field1" in the Text Input tool, and then click on the Alteryx "Paste from clipboard" button in that tool, it should handle that copy/paste for you.

[mcarrico]

Oh, nice! Learn a helpful new tip every day.

[ARich]

Because there's a straightforward workaround, we don't plan on implementing this.

Thanks to everyone for all the tips to accomplish this!

[jlefeaux]

Oh, snap!  Thank you @Claje for your 2nd comment.  That's exactly what I came to this thread looking for.  Having to add the column headers separately has always bothered me.

I don't see a way to 'star' your post so write this instead :)

[jpoz]

The ability to paste from Excel directly onto the canvas will be available in an upcoming release. Thank you for the suggestion!

[jpoz]

Thank you for this suggestion!

Starting with the 2019.4 release, you can copy data from many external programs (such as Excel, a web browser, SQL Management studio, etc.) and paste it onto the Designer canvas to create a Text Input tool from the data in your clipboard. There are also additional improvements to copy/paste and the Text Input tool as well. Download 2019.4 here: https://downloads.alteryx.com