Suppress empty files on Output Tool

[SeanAdams]

The Output tool currently creates a zero-row file if you filter all the rows out (an empty file)

However - there's a very common need to say "don't generate a file at all if there are zero rows" - for example if you are generating a "Daily Details" file and there are no daily details today, you want to suppress this file.   This frequently trips up newer users since the only way to suppress a zero-row output file today is to it with macros.

Could you add a flag to the output tool to "Suppress empty files" so that if there are no rows to be written, Alteryx does NOT create an empty file?   This way the user can be in control of what to do with empty record sets?

[mbarone]

Love this idea.

[Hollingsworth]

I would very much like this feature.

[KylieF]

Thank you for your idea and feedback!

This is a interesting idea and I'm sure our product team would be interested in seeing how many users would like to see this feature in the product. Be sure to share this idea around as it helps our product team gauge interest as best we can.

[charleswest]

Must have. When a simple feature isn't available and requires a multi-step workaround...well we work around it. I have a py script that deletes all files with no rows after a workflow is complete. I did this in py so it applies to all outputs and I don't have to replicate multiple steps every time I want to supress a zero record output. A simple check box that would supress file creation on specified critieria (like row count) would be way less lame. 

[patrick_digan]

This would be a nice feature to have! It's by no means perfect, but I've used the Take file/table name from field option which is a way to get around this issue. Since the only way it knows where to write the file is by referencing a field, a data stream with 0 records can't output an empty file since it no longer knows where to write the file. I've never come across a situation where this can't work, but I suppose it's possible.

[amtraker1777]

Please add this as an option for the Output Tool

[NicoleJ]

Stay tuned for exciting updates on this one! 

[NicoleJ]

Work in progress! We have started with the release of this option for XLSX and XLSM files in the 24.2 release - you can now prevent Excel files from being written if there are no records present in the data stream! Goodbye, empty files!!