Error '0 length' when inputting .shp

[damienlee]

I am trying to input a .shp file (which works when I test in other programs), however it gives me the error 'Field: "UR20" is 0 length.' I'm not sure how to proceed, and I updated my Alteryx to the newest edition and it still doesn't work.

Thanks

[mpizzorusso]

@damienlee Can you share your shapefile?

[damienlee]

Sorry the platform does not allow me to attach .shp files but I have the link of the data source (US Census website) at https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2022/TABBLOCK20/

I'd recommend to download

tl_2022_60_tabblock20.zip

 as this is the smallest but I have the problem on all the .shp files

[mpizzorusso]

Unfortunately it looks like this is a known bug. Sorry.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/0-length-error/td-p/503219

[CharlieS]

It does look like Alteryx is being thrown off by the null field encoding used in this file. Unfortunately we can't do much about these settings in Alteryx.

I was able to open and view these block files in Google Earth Pro, then save them as a kml file. The text of the kml file can then be parsed in Alteryx, but I didn't see any shortcuts to make that go smoothly. In any case, it seems like another GIS program might need to be involved until Alteryx becomes more resilient when it comes to encoded nulls.