Tool Mastery | Record ID
This article is part of the Tool Mastery Series, a compilation of Knowledge Base contributions to introduce diverse working examples for Designer Tools. Here we’ll delve into uses of the Record ID Tool on our way to mastering the Alteryx Designer:
Here at Alteryx, we do our best to keep things simple. Analytics is hard enough, there’s no need to overcomplicate things. That’s why we havethe Record ID Tool– true to its name, if your records don’t have a unique identifier or row count just drag this tool onto the canvas. That’s it. Put your feet up, take a deep breath, and celebrate the win. The best part? The Record ID Tool doesn’t stop there – there’s countless applications of the tool that can simply other operations, too. It’s a gift that just keeps on giving:
- Use a Record ID field to create primary keys in database tables created by a workflow
- Split your output into multiple files using Record IDs to specify precise record counts
- Process workflows in “packets” of records leveraging a Record ID - in some cases, this decreases run time
- Compare datasets down to the last record by mapping them to a Record ID
- Use the modulo (mod) functionto make groups of your data from the Record ID field, simplifying otherwise complex reshapes(see examples 1 and 2)
You can also enforce a record order to your datasets using a Record ID (just sort by it), which often comes in handy before reshaping or macro processing. If you’re looking to assign “Group By” Record IDs that reset to unique values of a particular field, try using the Tile Tool.
That’s a lot of operations made simpler by a single tool; it could be a record. Now, if that’s not worth celebrating, we don’t know what is.
By now, you should have expert-level proficiency with the Record ID Tool! If you can think of a use case we left out, feel free to use the comments section below! Consider yourself a Tool Master already? Let us know at community@alteryx.com if you’d like your creative tool uses to be featured in the Tool Mastery Series.
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