Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

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

Select some columns based on user interface and always select other columns

J-Riedel
8 - Asteroid

Hi,

 

I am trying to determine if there is a way to select certain columns based on a user interface?  I have a list of columns, where I want some to be selected based on the user selections (via a list box, or some interface tool) and there are some that I want to always be selected (no matter what the user selects).  Basically, I am creating a workflow to complete a monthly reconciliation, where I want the user to select the prior month YTD balance, current month activity and current month YTD balance fields (green highlighted in my below picture; these are the dynamic columns that will change monthly), but I will need the other columns to always show (items highlighted in yellow).

JRiedel_0-1630354368817.png

 

Is there a way to do this?

 

Thank you!

JR

7 REPLIES 7
SPetrie
12 - Quasar

Im sure there is something more efficient, but the easiest way I can think of would be to simply split out the static columns with one select and ignore unknown columns. Have another select with the variable columns and unknown ones, and setup your list box to allow users to choose from those. Use a join to combine the static and dynamic columns back together by position and then go from there.

split1.PNG

J-Riedel
8 - Asteroid

Thank you for the suggestion.  When I use the sample that you provided, using my fields, it ends up showing all of the fields rather than just the ones I choose from the App interface.  Thoughts?

Thanks!

SPetrie
12 - Quasar

Interesting. Which part shows all of them? After the join, or are there more fields in the app interface than there should be? Can you share your version of the workflow? (strip out any confidential names/info etc)

apathetichell
18 - Pollux

There's a lot that could be going wrong here - post a screengrab of your action tool config. Are you using a listbox? in select fields mode?

mst3k
11 - Bolide

a Dynamic Select should work. you could force some fields to always be included by using the formula, and use a listbox fed by a field list tool to allow the user to select the other fields (check out one of the existing tools like the Imputation tool to see how to set those up if you need to). 

The dynamic select can use a formula with dummy values that get replaced by the user's selections in the list box.

apathetichell
18 - Pollux

Try following the steps in the2021-08-30 (10).png2021-08-30 (9).png2021-08-30 (8).png2021-08-30 (7).png2021-08-30 (6).png attached photos... you don't allow for selections on the fields you want to keep no matter what. The other fields go into the listbox. you use the list box and action tool in select fields mode. They are UNCHECKED in the attached selection mode... There's another way using DYNAMIC SELECT. Which is honestly MORE AWESOME but this one is more intuitive...

apathetichell
18 - Pollux

@mst3k100% Dynamic Select is the cooler way to go.

Labels