Lower and Upper case on the input tool for files

[lascurainge]

Hi y´all,

This doubt might be super dumb, but i´m not able to find a clarification searching the community.

Does Alteryx is case sensitive for the input of documents?

The thing is that that I already have a model where i'm importing more than 200 files and the client just send the same data but with upper case on the name of the file. I wanted to know if I need to change the route of the whole 200 input tools or is the same. The name of the document doesn´t change, just the case. I'm just rewriting the new data on the old files, but it keeps the name of the old file.

Example_2019 -> EXAMPLE_2019

Thanks very much

[fmvizcaino · Accepted solution]

Hi @lascurainge ,

No, it isn't case sensitive, it doesn't matter is it is all caps or not.

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino

[salbol1]

Please note that while the case of the file name isn't sensitive, the fields contained within are, and can cause issues if you are using your module as a template for other processing. A good example may be an xlsx file where you are utilizing data by each tab, and those field names are variants of the same name. Tab 1 contains Region, Tab 2 has REGION and Tab 3 has region. If you were to create new modules for some reason to process each of these tabs individually -- especially if you used Cross Tab or Transpose or Select, you may find downstream processes (Joins especially) not matching data you'd think would align with no issues. In this instance, you will need to clear the cache of the tool by deselecting all of the fields, running the module to obtain an error, then reselecting the fields so that new XML replaces the existing XML for the tool.

You may also need to be aware of the sources for the data, and ensuring the new files are maintaining case integrity. If not, utilizing the Multi-Field Formula tool and doing such things as selecting all the Text fields, applying lowercase([_CurrentField_]) might be the best option to ensure any variability is handled the same way each time processing occurs. 

*** NOTE ***

This behavior was markedly seen in release 2021.2, so this will hopefully not age well and will be treated in subsequent releases.