Join Tool Not Matching Exact Matches

[EYamada]

Any reasons a Join Tool may not match exact matches?

I have two files I am trying to join by unique ID fields, both V_String fields.  These ID's contain both numbers and letters, I have manually found several exact matches, but the Join Tool returns 0 records joined.  Any thoughts?

Thank you.

EY

[RodL]

Sometimes "white space" can be involved. 

You might try running both fields through a Formula tool using the Trim() function. That will eliminate any trailing/preceding spaces and might be the issue.

[EYamada]

I tried a Trim function, as well as an Uppercase function, even with both in place, I still had 0 records joined.

[RodL]

Hard to say without seeing a sample of the data. Is it possible to attach some of the two data sets?

[EYamada]

Unfortunately, not without violating the NDA with the data source.

[RodL]

You might want to open a case with Client Services and have them take a look. They can "look over your shoulder" on a WebEx and try to troubleshoot without you sending any data.

http://www.alteryx.com/support

[mandycgray]

Hi.  I had this situation come up last week, and discovered it was a case-sensitive issue.  The spelling and whitespace were exact matches, but when we made sure both inputs were in the same upper/lower case, we were successful.

[EYamada]

I tried an Uppercase function, and unfortunately I still had 0 records joined.  I resorted to parsing the unique portion of the field out and joining by the parsed field.  

Thank you for the suggestion. 

EY

[EYamada]

I resorted to parsing the unique portion of the field out and joining by the parsed field.  

Thank you for the suggestion. 

EY

[PaulT · Accepted solution]

Greetings!

I realize you've found a workaround for your issue but thought I would add this.

If there are spaces in your data, it could be that you have a traditional space in one table and a non-breaking space in the other table. Non-breaking spaces look like spaces, but are not actually treated the same as hitting your space bar on your computer. The computer will read it as a character just as any other alphanumeric character, which causes issues. You can create a non-breaking space by holding Alt on your keyboard and hitting 0160.

If you have the time and inclination to give this a test, I would love to hear if it works!

Thanks,

Paul