Error: There were more than 16 records in the source

[Alteryx_KB]

Environment Details

•  Alteryx Designer
  • All versions
• Append Fields

Cause

The Append Fields tool creates a Cartesian Join (where every row from the Target input is joined to every row of the Source input).  It is possible to unintentionally produce an excessive number of records, therefore it is recommended to keep the size of the Source input small. 

Resolution

If the inclusion of more than 16 records in the Source input is intentional, select another option in the Warn/ Error on Too Many Records Being Generated dropdown. 

• Warn on appends of more than 16 records creates a warning instead of an error (second image)
• Allow All Appends

[amadra]

By default, this is selected as one of the configuration options in the Append Fields tool.

This is protect the user/workflow from accidently creating X*Y number of records when appending large datasets.

Simply change the configuration setting to "Allow All Appends" OR "Warn on appends of more than 16 records" and re-run the workflow.