Join three tables with two join tools in the same workflow

[davechndr]

Hello everyone!

Attached, is a workflow I created for the purpose of outputting a table with the following columns - whether in Alteryx itself, or as a ".csv" file: When connecting an Output Data tool and the Browse tool at the end of the workflow, the output is blank. (I did this for a Produce store/market.)

Customer Last Name	Customer First Name	Product	Quantity*	Category	$Cost of Product to Store	$Total Amount Spent For Item	$Selling Price	$Total Amount in Sales

*Here, the assumption is that the quantity of any item that the store buys is the same as the store sells, so the beginning inventory at the beginning of June is the same as the ending inventory at the end of June, for each product.

In other words, the workflow runs fine but nothing gets output. I cannot figure out why.

Any help on this issue of an empty output file would be highly appreciated.

Thank you very much and Happy Fourth of July, in advance!

Best,

@davechndr

[danrh]

Hey @davechndr, the data wasn't included in your upload.  Could you post some samples?

Just glancing through your workflow, one thing that stuck out was in your first Join tool you're joining Customer to ABC Specialty Store --- should this be Customer to Customer?

[davechndr]

Hi @danrh,

Thanks for getting back to me. When you say that the data was not included in my upload, it seems as if the 'ABC Specialty Store' text file was not read in properly. Is that what you mean when you talk about "the data was not imcluded in your upload"? Wouldn't the Input Data Tool import/bring in the source files/display the tables on the LHS of the screen (when you double-click on the Input Data Tool)?

That seems weird, because the 'ABC Specialty Store' text file is a Notepad file I created, which has the field names and the actual information separated by commas (,) - this Notepad file is attached with this message.

Would the attached file be the source of the problem, as this is the one I joined with the customer profile table, and this is the one where the data was not showing up on the LHS, when I double-click on the Input Data Tool?

Thanks, again, and your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

@davechndr

[danrh]

Sorry for the confusion, I think I used a poor choice of words.  What I meant was that when you posted your workflow, the actual data didn't come with it.  So when I downloaded and opened your workflow on my machine, all of the Input Data tools produced errors, stating that they couldn't find the data sources.

Could you post all three files that you use in the workflow?

It's possible that the file you attached is causing issues.  Double check that in the configuration of the Input tool you have selected to Start Data Import on Line 2 --- your first line in the text file is a title and needs to be skipped to get the data to come in correctly.

[davechndr]

Hi @danrh,

Thanks for clarifying. Yes, I can upload the three source tables that I brought in to Alteryx, via the Text Input Tool. The first is the file (NotePad) I sent about 20 minutes ago; as it seems like I can only attach one file per post, I will attach the other two - one in this post and one in the next without a message.

When I checked, on my end, the other two tables (the two I will be attaching with this and my next post) seem to have been read in okay,  via the Text Input Tool.

I am sure we will sort through it and figure it out together.

Thanks, again.

Best,

@davechndr

[davechndr]

Hi @danrh.

[danrh]

Sorry for the delay, just got a couple minutes to take a look at this.

It looks like the issue is with the Joins.  Take a look at the attached version and see if it makes sense.

[davechndr]

Good evening @danrh,

Sorry, too, for the delayed response. Because our company was closed for the week, I went away to a place where there was no internet & I was unable to respond earlier.

It seems that the only thing that was wrong with my workflow was with the 'Select Tools' that were not needed? If that is indeed what was wrong, can you please explain why, when you get an opportunity?

I see that everything else between yours and my workflows are exactly the same.

Thanks, again, and take care.

Best,

@davechndr

[danrh · Accepted solution]

The Select tools weren't the issue --- I removed them just to simplify things for my own sake, you can add them back if needed (as a side note, you can also use the Join tools themselves to select/de-select fields).  I got the workflow working by changing what fields were being joined in the Join tools.  For instance, in the first Join tool the configuration was:

And I changed it to:

"Customer" is the field that exists in both of the datasets and the thing that ties them together. 

I did similarly for the second Join, changing "Item Name = Item Name" to "Item Name = Item No." --- when I looked at the data, while Item Name existed in both datasets, the data itself showed that the same data was in Item Name in the first dataset and Item No. in the second.

Does that make sense?

[davechndr]

Hi @danrh,

Yes, it makes perfect sense. Thank you very, very, much for your efforts in working with me on this interesting practice problem. I'll certainly reach out to you if I have other questions on other practice worflows that I do.

Since you and I corresponded quite a bit on Friday of the week before last (before last week, when we were closed) and today, I ask you a few additional questions that I have on Alteryx's tools:

1. With the 'Sort' tool, what would be the difference in the output of numeric strings (whether using a 'Browse' or a 'Output Data' tool), if the 'Use Dictionary Order' were checked versus unchecked?
2. When using the "Left([Field], #)", "Right([Field], #)", "GetWord ([Field], #)" and other similar features of the 'Formula' tool, which ones start indexing at 0 and which ones begin indexing at 1, when Alteryx finds what to output within a text field?
3. Is it valid to say that the 'Cross Tab' and 'Transpose' tools always perform opposite tasks? If not, in which situations do these two tools not do the opposite tasks?
4. What does the 'Autofield' tool do?

Any assistance to my understanding of these useful tools would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, again, and talk soon!

Best,

@davechndr