Using Field Info to select columns

[TRW]

Hi internet brain trust

I have a problem that I don't think has been addressed yet.  I have a yxdb that is refreshed monthly, with 1,200 columns and approximiately 50,000 records.  Some columns are text, others are numeric.  Let's call this BigYxdb

I need about 300 of those columns for a separate report.  I have those column names in a separate text input.  Using the Field Info and Join tools, I've managed to isolate the desired column headers from BigYxdb.  Now I'm trying to get back to the all the data in those specific 300 columns in BigYxdb and am stuck.

I've tried using the Transpose tool to transpose BigYxdb, but I can't get all 50,000 data points to stream out to the right.  If I could transpose BigYxdb into a table that had Column Name in column 1, and then 50,000 additional columns to the right this would all work, but I can't.  I think part of the problem is that I need all the data flipped, and my data is a combination of text and numeric.

My questions:

1) Did I clearly explain my problem?

2) Any ideas on how to solve my problem?

I've attached a very simplified workflow that outlines the problem.

Thanks!

[apathetichell]

use summarize tool to generate a full list of the field names you want formatted as ("fieldname1",...,"fieldnameN")

append this solo field to your data source.

Now drag a dynamic select tool onto your canvas.

Use this in formula mode to see if the [Name] is in your concatenated field. Only those fields will be selected.

[patrick_digan · Accepted solution]

@TRW very clear explanation. Here's how I solved this recently. I used the dynamic rename to pass a description to your data. I never before have used the description bit of the metadata. When you click on the line coming out of the dynamic rename, you can see which fields i intend to keep based on the description in the metadata:

From there, A dynamic select tool can select fields that include the description keep:

Hope that helps!