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Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base

Definitive answers from Designer Desktop experts.

N-Dimensional Join Errors

CristonS
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Created

n-dimensional join.JPG


 

Occasionally you may see one of these errors from the Join Multiple tool. It is a result of Cartesian joins.


 

A Cartesian join is when you join every row of one table to every row of another table. You can also get one by joining every row of a table to every row of itself. A Cartesian join is very CPU intensive.


 

For example, if you have four files and each file has the same ID in it twice, that means it will join 2*2*2*2 times on the ID (the field on which you're joining is the key referenced in the error; in this example, it's Field1, and the duplicated value is 12345). The same can be caused by multiple nulls in each file.

 

n-dimensional join4.JPG

After your data prep and investigation, and when you know your data are correct, your choices on how to handle Cartesian joins include:


 

  • Allow multidimensional joins: The multidimensional join will occur with no error or warning reported.
  • Warn on multidimensional joins of more than 16 records: A warning will be reported in the Results window that a multidimensional join has occurred.
  • Error on multidimensional joins of more than 16 records: An error will be reported in the Results window that a multidimensional join has occurred and downstream processing will stop.


 

n-dimensional join2.jpg

 

 

Comments
martinoreb
6 - Meteoroid

how do you resolve the error?

CristonS
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

hi @martinoreb, the error should resolve by selecting a different join option: Allow All or Warn.  Make sure to check for nulls, because they will join to each other across all your files!

 

CristonS_1-1583939682872.png

 

 

GideonM
6 - Meteoroid

Thanks @CristonS, resolved my issue, i had same.

PiyushJain
8 - Asteroid

Hi CristonS,

 

I am also facing the similar issue:

( Below is the issue deatils)..Please advise.

How to resolve this issue and how to identify and handle NULL.

 

 

I am facing below error/warning in alteryx designer workflow.

Error:

 

" 128 records were generated by an N - Dimensional Join key ( Business Region: XYZ ,COUNTRY: ABC).

 

My expected output rows : 210 to 250 rows

But i am getting 2300 rows

 

I checked and found ,output rows contains few null records, i sucpect that because of NULL ,my multiple join tool getting to much records like 2300 rows. ( but not sure).

 

I Tried below 2 options 

 

1. Warn on multidimensional joins....

2. Error on multidimensional  joins....

 

But still getting same above error.

 

I also tried option " Allow All multidimensional..."

But result is not expected. 

 

My input to Multiple Join tool is not contain any NULL ,But output contains Null values.

 

I checked throughly, but not able to figure out from where these nulls are coming. 

 

Please advise how to resolve issue.

 

Regards 

Piyush J

 

CristonS
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

hi @PiyushJain the best way to get a fast response is to post to the Designer discussion forum. Your question will have greater visibility and a wider range of responses.