Error: Too many fields in record #

[Slava9]

I am having trouble with one file import, getting the below message. Read by increasing the Field Length would solve the problem, that did not work. Help!!! :)

[CharlieS]

Hi @Slava9 

Typically this happens when one of your rows has your delimiter character within the field, or the file creation was bugged and one row has too many/few delimiters.

I recommend starting out by investigating exactly what's going on. In a separate workflow, input the file with no delimiter (use "\0" in the Input configuration) to input all the rows as text. Then add a RecordID tool and a Filter set to [RecordID]=186600 to get this row isolated. That should give you insight to what's going on, and maybe how to address it.

Check that out and let us know what you discover! 

[Slava9]

i am very green in using alteryx, is there a way we could talk over the phone?

[CharlieS]

Hmmm I can't do a phone call. I'll try and step through it here:

- Click on the Input tool that's giving the error can copy it (Ctrl+C)

- Open a new workflow (Ctrl+N) and paste that same tool (Ctrl+V)

- Click on this new input tool and change the delimiter. Currently it shows "|", click there and change it to ""\0" (without the quotes). This will put all the data from each record in one field per row.

- Drop a RecordID tool onto the canvas and connect the Input tool to the RecordID tool

- Drop a Filter tool onto the canvas after the RecordID tool. In the configuration of that Filter tool, select the [RecordID] field from the dropdown and set the value to 18660 (the record number from the original error message)

- Add browse tools after the Filter tool by right-clicking on the Filter tool and selecting "Add All Browses"

- Run this workflow and look at the Browse tool connected to the "T" output of the Filter tool to look at the row of data that is causing the problem. 

Share this (row of) data if you can or let us know what you see. 

[Slava9]

Castor, thank you so much. I got it to run, now what am i looking at? Not sure what to look for. 

[Slava9]

Can anyone help me with above? I need to have this resolved today. 

[Luke_C]

@Slava9 

@CharlieS nailed it. Bring your data for that row into excel and look at the data against the expected column headers. The error indicates there is extra data. 

If you can't fix the data in the source, one option could be to read in the data with the \0 delimiter and use the text to columns tool. 

[CharlieS]

@Slava9 Nice work putting that together! Thank you for sharing that image; this gives us a lot more information.

I noticed that the input is using the "*" method to bring in multiple files via the same Input tool. Since the line of data displayed on that record looks like header values, my guess is that this line starts a new file from that set of files that has a different field schema than the files preceding it. On the Input tool of this workflow, you could check the option to "Output File Name as Field" and run this again to see which file name this record comes from. 

Short term fix: try bringing these files using individual Input tools and use a Union tool to merge them. Setting that Union tool to "Manually Configure Fields" and you'll be able to see where the field maps differ. 

Long term fix: I would dig into the process(es) that generate these files to see if there are any modifications that can be made to prevent these field discrepancies. 

[Slava9]

@CharlieS 

I below is what i am getting when i import both files. 

[CharlieS]

Nice! Now you know what field is missing from your input file. You can follow up by looking into the process that creates the file to rectify the situation.