Engine Works
Under the hood of Alteryx: tips, tricks and how-tos.
With Alteryx 5.0, currently in beta, there is a new tool - Dynamic Rename. The tool will allow users to quickly rename fields through multiple methods. This will allow you to pick all or selected fields from an input stream. It will also allow you to rename unknown or dynamic fields at runtime.
Formula - create a formula using _CurrentField_. This will apply the formula to each selected field in your list.
Add Prefix/Suffix - Add a prefix or suffix to each selected field in your list.
Remove Prefix/Suffix - Remove a prefix or suffix from each of the selected fields in your list.
Take Field Names from First Row of Data - use the first row of your file as the Field Names for each of the selected fields in your list.
There are also 4 modes that use a second input to help you rename all of your fields.
Take Field Names from Right Input Metadata - Use the right input metadata for your field names. None of the rows will be read from this file. You have the option to
Ignore, Warn or Error out if the number of fields names from the left input do not match the right input. You also have the option of changing the field type and size.
Take Field Names from Right Input Rows - Use the right input rows to "map" from one set of names to another. You can select, Use positional rename for the old column if you have a 1-1 mapping. Or you can select a column from the right input which represents the old field names and another column from the right input which represents the new field names.
Take Field Descriptions from Right Input Metadata - Use the right input metadata for your new descriptions. None of the rows will be read from this file. You have the option to Ignore, Warn or Error out if the number of fields names from the left input do not match the right input.
Take Field Descriptions from Right Input Rows - Use the right input rows to "map" from one set of descriptions to another. You can select, Use positional rename for the old column if you have a 1-1 mapping. Or you can select a column from the right input which represents the old descriptions and another column from the right input which represents the new descriptions.
I had an example where it took 12 tools to use the first row of data as field names and display the data. With the new Dynamic Rename it took only 5 tools.
Have fun trying it out!
