Tool Mastery | TS Filler

[TonyM]

Thisarticle 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 theTS Filler Tool on our way to mastering the Alteryx Designer:

Time-series forecastingis the use of a statistical model to predict future values based on past results. So what can these future and past values be? Any variable that can be tracked and collected over time!Think of annual population data, a company's daily stock price, or quarterly sales figures. For our examples we will be working with bookings data gathered from a mountain resort hotel.

How should this data be collected?

1. Over a continuous time interval
2. Of sequential measurements across that interval
3. Using equal spacing between every two consecutive measurements and
4. With each time unit within the time interval having at most one data point

Once the data has been structured to fit this format, Atleryx has a host ofTime Series Toolsto help you display, analyze and predict future values. This is done with the same easy drag and drop interface that you've come to know and love!

Let's take a look at these tools a bit more in depth...

TS Filler- Takes a data stream of time series data and fills in any gaps in the series.

So what happens when your data doesn'tfit the collection methods for time series analysis because of missing periods? Give up? Stop Analyzing? NEVER! The TS Filler tool will help you fill in the missing periods. It's then up to you to find the bestimputation methodto fill in the missing values.

Key Terms to Understand:

Imputation - The process of replacingmissing datawith substituted values.

TS Plot ConfigurationProperties:

Select Date or DateTime column:Choose the date or datetime column indicating when the data row was collected

Interval:Select the interval by which the time series is measured. Options:

• • Minute
  • Hour
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month
  • Year

Increment:Select the increment by which each unique time series period should be separated. Options:

• Any integer from1 to 100

For example, to generate a series covering “every 3 weeks” you would choose “Week” for the interval and 3 for the increment.

Check out the attached v11.3 workflow, TS Filler.yxzp, for a working example of the tool in action!

By now, you should have expert-level proficiency with theTS FillerTool! 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 atcommunity@alteryx.comif you’d like your creative tool uses to be featured in the Tool Mastery Series.

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