Find/Replace Unmatched Record Behavior

[mcarrico]

I hadn't used the find/replace tool much until last Inspire conference when a presenter mentioned that it is more performant than a join.  After hearing this, I started to use the tool a bit more and can definitely see the value, especially in cases of partial matches.  That said, the one reason that I am always hesitant to use it over a join tool is that I don't have any way of seeing which records are unaffected by the find/replace operation without several additional tools.  The log gives me a record count, but in order to isolate records, I have to use a join, or filter which defeats the purpose of using the find/replace in the first place.  Also, if I have an automated process using a find/replace, I may just want to add a test or message tool to throw an error or warning if there are unmatched records (for example, if a new lookup value is added to a dataset).  

So I think that these shortcomings could be addressed in two ways:

1. Modify the find/replace tool to include a matched and unmatched output.  I realize that this one may be difficult given the configuration overhaul to a widely-used tool in the Alteryx ecosystem.  Furthermore, the requirement to union the matched and unmatched outputs may be viewed as some as a step backwards from a performance and simplicity standpoint in the tool.  

2. Add an error handling option to the tool itself (similar to the union) to give the user an option to how to handle unmatched records.  While this would only solve the concern over unmatched records slipping through the cracks, it would at least alert me that further investigation is required.

[Community_Admin]

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[gtaramasso]

I came here to add an idea and found this to be the closest to what I was going to suggest:

Add a "Throw Error/Warn/Ignore" option to Find/Replace tool if not all records are found.  Like the Transpose tool, it would be helpful if the Find/Replace tool threw an error or warned you if all the records were not found