Simplifying a complicated Workflow

[BSmithdubz]

Hi all,

I have a working workflow with a few batch macros that is outputting the correct data as-is, but I am looking to simplify it as much as possible in order to make it run faster and to make it more easily digestible for anyone new to Alteryx. Although I built the majority of the workflow and the macros used, I'm not sure if any of the tools can be replaced or what else could be done to streamline any of the processes to arrive at the same result. I have attached the package here (with client source data removed, let me know if dummy data might be helpful) - would anyone be able to point me towards some tools or give me some advice as to how to clean this up a bit? Thank you!

[danilang]

Hi @BSmithdubz 

From looking at the overall structure things look pretty good.  Just a couple of suggestions

- Disable all the browse tools

- Towards the end of your main workflow you use 2 Summarize tools to extract the first and last records of your data set

Summarize tools scan the entire dataset and pull out the information that you need.  Since you only want the first and last records, consider replacing these with two Sample tools, one for the First 1 row and one for the Last 1 row. Sample tools use the internal row indexes to find the targeted row and run much faster than the equivalent Summarize

-In the macro WAcalcMAcro, you write the data to ..\..\_externals\2\TablesLayout.xlsx.  If you don't need use these files elsewhere, don't write them.  

-In the same macro you have two separate instances of transpose-operations-crosstab.  Crosstab operations can be very expensive so analyze these to see if you can get away without it.

Dan