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Do default settings on the select tool (and other tools) vary by locale?

aw1
5 - Atom

I am helping to develop some software (outside of Alteryx) which a user will run to generate an output text file of data. They will then import this text file into Alteryx and do (their own, custom) further transformations and processing. These users will be based in various countries.

 

In order to make the overall process easy for them, I'd like to know how I should format numbers in the output text file from my application so that it is as easy as possible to read into Alteryx installed on the same machine. I could ensure my application always outputs numbers with a decimal point; or I could use the regional settings of the computer it was run on to use the local number format - e.g. outputting a comma when run on a French machine and a decimal point when run on a UK machine.

 

I want my output to be consistent with the default behaviour of an Alteryx tool created in that locale. For example when I create a select tool on my (UK - English) computer; it recognises decimal points as the decimal separator when converting string types to numeric types. (There is a checkbox option to use comma, but by default this is unchecked and it would use the point).

 

In other locales (e.g. on a French installation of Alteryx) would a newly created select tool look for commas by default instead?

 

What if an Alteryx workflow created in one locale was opened on a machine in another locale? Would the behaviour of a select tool change or would it stay the same?

 

I know Alteryx can generally cope with anything and it would be pretty trivial to fix any issues like this on the Alteryx side. But there are potentially hundreds of users generally with limited or no experience of Alteryx so giving them a head start by starting with a nicely formatted file is valuable.

 

TLDR: In Alteryx 11.5 there is a check box in the settings for the select tool to use commas instead of a point as the decimal separator when converting between string and numeric types. Would this be checked by default on an Alteryx workflow created on a machine where the locale settings use commas as the decimal separator?

 

2 REPLIES 2
SophiaF
Alteryx
Alteryx

@aw1 - Period would be your best bet - period is the default delimiter for Alteryx Engine, so numbers are interpreted identically on machines with different regional settings. 

Sophia Fraticelli
Senior Solutions Architect
Alteryx, Inc.
aw1
5 - Atom

Thanks!

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