importing text file to cleanse issues

[tyreenugen]

Hi, I'm trying to import a text file (please see below details and the attached file) to perform some cleansing, specifically deleting the lines beginning with EXTRACT and splitting the DETAIL lines by |. I thought this would be a breeze but it's harder than i expected. can someone advise on what i'm doing wrong? The workflow is also attached. thanks!

EXTRACT|2019-07-02|540|261902.66
DETAIL|2764|2019-07-02|1|00001083|Joe|Ty||UNITED STATES|USA|857.52
DETAIL|2764|2019-07-02|2|00001083|Joe|Ty||UNITED STATES|USA|745.01
DETAIL|2764|2019-07-02|3|00001083|Adam|Smith||UNITED STATES|USA|52.21

[MichaelLaRose · Accepted solution]

Hi @tyreenugen,

The problem with reading the data is that Alteryx is seeing that different rows have a different number of fields and that is causing issues.

You can use the attached workflow to read in the document and create the dateset you are looking for.

Note I used a relative path so the data file just needs to be in the same folder as the workflow.

Best,

Michael

[jeff_reynolds]

As with anything Alteryx related, there's more than 1 way to solve the issue. I imported your data by setting up the file import config the following way.

If you have other rows downstream that contain 'EXTRACT', you should be able to filter those right out. 

Good luck. 

[smoskowitz]

Hi @tyreenugen 

See if this helps,

Seth

[tyreenugen]

thanks all for the help! i appreciate it.