Querying a Calgary DB / File to Select and Limit Input Records

[WayneW]

Because most Calgary Databases (files with .cydb extension) contain millions of records with hundreds of fields, a method for allowing a user to quickly determine which records to read is available. 

Recently an Alteryx client wanted to select specific records from a Calgary Database containing over 700 million records.  The tool the client used to read records was the Input Data tool. 

While the configuration of this tool does allow a user to limit the number of records input, it doesn’t provide the ability to select specific records (option 1 in the configuration). 

A Filter tool could be attached to the Input Data but this would require all 700 million records be input first.  To read 700 million records would require about 10 hours. 

The Calgary Input tool enables users to query a Calgary database directly.  (For help configuring the Calgary Input tool, see this help documentation).

Since the .cydb file in our example is small (only 15 records), the amount to time it takes to read records using the Input tool isn’t much different than using the Calgary Input tool.  However, if this file had contained millions of records, the time savings of using the Calgary Input can be huge!