Get Inspire insights from former attendees in our AMA discussion thread on Inspire Buzz. ACEs and other community members are on call all week to answer!

Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

Find answers, ask questions, and share expertise about Alteryx Designer Desktop and Intelligence Suite.
SOLVED

Preserve Formatting on Overwrite Does not work with Named Range in Excel

tim-regas
5 - Atom

I am trying to overwrite a named range in Excel but keep the formatting. However when I select Preserve Formatting on Overwrite, the formatting is still removed. I've attached a very simple workflow along with and Excel file with the corresponding named range.

 

The formatting is preserved if I use the cell number "A1:B3" however, this won't work because in my actual workflow the named ranges could have varying sizes and start at different locations through out the sheet.

 

Thanks!

5 REPLIES 5
gabrielvilella
14 - Magnetar

You must have the range if you want to preserve formatting. If your range varies, you can insert a value that is long enough to accommodate all your data always or have the range being updated dynamically based on your data. For this last one you will need to build the processes within the workflow to updated the full path.

binuacs
20 - Arcturus

@tim-regas if you want to make it dynamic then I think the count record tool an option here

binuacs_0-1647376893297.png

 

tim-regas
5 - Atom

@binuacs This is exactly how I will need to make it dynamic. Thank you very much for the example on how to make it dynamic!

DavidP
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Hi @tim-regas 

 

Some notes on cell ranges:

 

If you specify  a cell range A1:B6, it is an exact range from column A to B and from row 1 to 6. However, if you know the column range ( A to B), but you don't know the row range, you could specify the range as

 

A1:B

 

This will write data for the column range A to B, and start writing data at row 1 for as many rows as you have in your dataset. It's an easy way to deal with fixed columns but variable rows and it will preserve any existing formatting if you selected that option.

smburns25
5 - Atom

Do we know when this bug will be fixed or if it has been in a current version.  This is obviously a flaw that should be addressed and not a work around to be documented. 

 

I just ran into this and the only solution I have, as this is a production report, is to have it overwrite the file and not preserve formatting.

Labels