Results Window Not Showing Data Despite Records Being Present

[kelsey_kincaid]

A colleague of mine ( @ericrine ) and I are finding ourselves stumped. My colleague ran a workflow, and the results window is showing no data despite records being present. You can see in the screenshot below that the results window recognizes that there are records (0 of 231 records displayed), and results windows/browse tools farther along in the workflow all show records present. I verified that there is no filter active in the results window. Other input tools in the workflow do not have this same problem. The only common thread we have noticed is that the offending input tools are all an ODBC connection to SmartSheet. We tested out another input tool in a separate workflow that was also an ODBC connection to SmartSheet and we encountered the same problem. Thoughts around what might be causing this. 

[fharper]

I have noticed issues in trusting the results window and the preview element in the Formula tool, Results window more so since moving from 2018.11 to 2019.2.

I think recent changes in the applications presentation logic is treating the results window similarly to how it is on output connection of a Cross Tab or similar tool where the result is dependent on processing of the data within the tool.  You will find numerous discussions on meta-data being lost when changes are made in the tool or upstream because the "auto Configure" option is the default most people use and thus those tools flush meta-data looking for a new run to populate based on new upstream changes.  Sorry if this is not clear as if you are relatively new you may not have used these tools I speak of...but basically joins, unions Cross-tabs and similar tools all will have outputs change based on inputs and changes to their own configuration...more so than other tools.  The refresh or auto-config feature will not be able to predict impact meta-data and thus you lose it until the next physical run repopulates it.

The formula tool has a "Preview" pane or element for each formula to show you the result of your formula based on it acting on the last seen data (meta-data) and this is not always accurate or even close to the actual result you would get.  Preview will round in some cases even if your formula does not for numbers...for large strings over 300 or so characters if you are manipulating with regex or other string functions what you se may not be what the result actually is so use this feature (Preview) with a grain of salt.

I now have a habit of writing to a browse to review and validate from as that has always allowed me to see the actual result in its entirety.  Notice result view and Formula preview are limited in how many characters they will display where browse or writing an actual file lets you see it all...even columns that are thousands of characters....

I hope this helps...at least knowing you can write to a brows or file to be Abe to see...as an augmentation of the result view if you will...is a good work around.

These are my experiences and suppositions.  To know the real nuts & bolts of why...you will need an Alteryx engineer to respond I suspect.  

[jpoz]

Every tool except for the Browse tool has a data limit for the amount of records it will show. It looks to me like you're hitting that limit before it can even display one row.

You can either add a browse tool to the tool you want to see the records for, or you could try changing the record limit on non-browse tools by going to:

• User Settings | Advanced | Tool Results Settings
• check Override System Settings
• and set the Memory Limit per Anchor to be higher

[vujennyfer]

Thank you for your response! The browse tool fixed it for me. I could not figure out why the records were not showing up when searched. I also exported it to a csv file to see that the all the data was actually there. 

[NiranjanKale]

Excellent response. I could not have figured out even after reading tons of documentation. Thanks i was try to set up filter on results tab to check on some data attributes which were getting lost and i was confused. I changed the setting as shared by you and now i can see them

[Gina2021]

Disable all browse tools was preventing data from showing in ALL of my tool anchors!

[AjayKN]

Perfect, I had the same doubt. This works great. Thank You!