Alteryx - Dynamic Input Tool

[@jonathanlee3776]

Thank you for this video! I often need to grab the same data from different data warehouses due to the frequency at which certain data is updated by certain departments, and dynamic inputs have been a lifesaver for combining that data efficiently. Will definitely be watching more of your Alteryx videos to learn more!

[@thulasirao9139]

hi, I was struck in Dynamic input. I removed the replacing value in the first row. After checking your video, I realize that. Thank you. Now it works

[@NPT]

Glad it helped, Thulasi!

[@ezscootrr]

Best tutorial I've seen in alteryx. No BS and direct to the point. It's working the first time I've tried it.

[@NPT]

Thanks Edwin!

[@minglei5759]

Thank you Nathan for having a series for Alteryx. I really enjoyed your videos, looking forward to more :)))

[@NPT]

There are more to come, Ming!

[@KennethBlack]

Nathan, I've been waiting a long time for a great example of this tool. Thanks for delivering pure awesomeness. Ken

[@NPT]

Thanks SO much Ken. I loved your post on "The Finer Things in Alteryx". It is indeed all about Alteryx Analytics Badassery!

[@KennethBlack]

It was at the Inspire conference in Boston in 2015 when Ned Harding was trying to explain to me how to use the dynamic input tool. At that time, there were no documented examples, even from Alteryx themselves. Subsequently, Chris Love wrote an article showing how he used it, which was pretty good. It wasn’t until this video that that I finally understood what Ned was trying to explain to me. He said that there were many similarities between batch macro operations and the dynamic input tool, but the dynamic input tool was just intrinsically better. Now I understand why. Thanks again Nathan, your training videos are outstanding.

[@NPT]

Yes, and I’m only scratching the surface here. Combine it with an app interface control and now you’re rockin’! It’s a very powerful tool.

[@BrianGarside]

Great demonstration of this tool. Love to see the SQL: Spatial Filter as this pertains to a project Im working on.

[@jasmeetsbhatia7]

Great work.. Your knowledge inspires me and the way you teach is perfect.. Keep it up..

[@NPT]

jasmeetsbhatia7 Thanks for the kind words! Much appreciated!

[@kuntalchowdhury8375]

Amazing work, thanks for making such great videos

[@NPT]

Thanks Kuntal!

[@pradeepkumar-he6nb]

Hi Nathan, That was quite helpful. could you please make a video on interface section tools. Really hope to see more on every tool.

[@NPT]

Yes, I did a two part series. The first one is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGaYlmudfM2LhsU

[@DanielWeikert]

Great work Nathan. Thanks a lot! Really hope to see more. Always looking forward to a new video

[@NPT]

I was going to send you a quick comment and let you know it was posted. Glad you like it. More to come. :-)

[@jjuarez94]

Hi Nathan, good Job. Thanks for share your knowledge with us. Of course, I would like to see an example of this tool with access databases. Regards.

[@neelimakammila7891]

Hi Patrick, Nice explanation...Thank you for the video. Do we have option to connect Alteryx to cloud. Please reply

[@NPT]

Hi Neelima, you can connect to a number of cloud data repositories. In my day job, I connect to both AWS Redshift and Azure SQL.

[@neelimakammila7891]

Thank you for your immediate reply.

[@mv829]

Thank you for this video!

[@NPT]

You are so welcome!

[@Laxmanmane007]

Hi Nathan waiting for new videos Alteryx not uploaded any videos on Alteryx recently

[@NPT]

Lucky! When you post a comment, I must respond. Yes, indeed it has been a while. I do have some new content coming. 👍

[@Laxmanmane007]

@@NPT thanks for your special reply.eagerly waiting for your new video😊😊

[@sirishaalla5509]

Hi Nathan, I have a scenario where Alteryx should be able to pull previous Day's file, for example today if I run workflow it should directly pick up Day minus 1 day( previous Day's) file as input file on a daily basis? Please help

[@nelson_k_d]

Thanks Nathan, Please create a video for SharePoint input tool also...

[@NPT]

Thanks for the tip Nelson K.D. Here's the latest video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6qXnmtuhstpi9U

[@nelson_k_d]

Hi Nathan, Please create a video on how to import multiple excel files from a folder dynamically, each excel file having multiple sheets (say sheet1 & sheet2). Data of sheet1 needs to be appended from all excel files. How to do that? Thanks in advance.

[@ashok.bkumar6837]

Hi Nathan , Hope you are doing well. great video . Need your help to executive stored procedure with multiple out parameter . my requirement is to update values into table based on values. received data from share point and update values on report id value. could you please make video .

[@parulgupta1874]

Thanks for this vedio. ❤

[@Unknownchornicles]

Thank you Can you please provide an example, where we need to extract data between some dates

[@NPT]

I just posted a new video about filtering on dates. Watch it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6atf6qNnbiNftU

[@amitojsingh3489]

thanks for sharing this, can you please share one with xlsx, keep getting sheet not found error

[@NPT]

Yes, this video should help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmbSYqWIa5iqf9k

[@SrinivasaTeja]

Hi Nathan, please make videos on Fuzzy matching, various Macros in alteryx. many thanks!

[@anjanachhipa4915]

Hi Nathan - can you please show an example of multiple excel files and with multiple sheet with diff schema and put out also in same form ie multiple sheets with same name but in one single excel file?

[@sunithach766]

Hi... When we are using dynamic input how to choose the sheets inside xlsx file??

[@murrowboy]

Using Dynamic Input tool, I'm getting an error too much records #1.. I have no idea what that means..

[@girimpr]

Can you please show how to load xlsb through dynamic input tool ?

[@akk1830]

Hi Nathan, Have you received a lot of requests or plan to create a video on 'Uploading data to 'BOX' from local machine?' It would be great if you could look into it

[@NPT]

Hi AK, yes, I'll take a look at how to Upload to BOX. It sounds like a fun project.

[@michaels1813]

Hello, Is there a way with the first example (excel) to include the sheet name in the output? Thanks,

[@NPT]

Yes, the filename will be include as a separate field. You'll just need to parse it out of the field. It is at the end separated by pipes "|".

[@dammitanothername]

I skimmed. This appears to be loading a folder of files that are all the same schema. If you're wondering what else there is, I have a folder of files with different schemas to load to a database. I could easily do it in python but I'm trying it out in alteryx.

[@omkarkommareddi3600]

Hey Nathan. Thanks. This was really helpful. However, I am restricted to using an ODBC connection. Is there any work-around to use the 'UPDATE WHERE CLAUSE' for the dynamic input with ODBC?

[@dperaltao]

Hi mate, great video, thanks. After I use dynamic input several times I got the error "has a different schema than the 1st file in the set" with a set of excel files. I don't know what to do, my files have exactely the same schema, could you suggest something?

[@NPT]

Hi David, yes, I've encountered that error many times. Alteryx is pretty picky. The number of columns and headers need to be exactly the same for each file. A couple tricks... use and import Range instead of importing the entire files. Also, don't import the headers, skip those and redefine them later in the workflow.

[@sohammukherjee5686]

Hello Nathan, I'm working with a financial data. That DMS has thousands of datasets. All of them have same kind of data, but the Field names and Positions are different. I have to create a macro that will take the subtotals from each dataset. Is it possible to create such, through which all of them can run? I have the column name variations.

[@TheLazzanova61]

Hello Nathan, Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I've learnt a lot from your videos. I have a question. In my workflow I only use 1 file as an input. But the location of my input file differs each week. The folders I use contain the Calender Week number in it. So the input file of CW 01 are located in folder named 2018_CW_01. CW 02 is in folder named 2018_CW_02 etc... These folders are all in the same directory. Rather than having to manually select the input files each week, I'm looking for a way to make this dynamic. So is there a way I can actually type in "2018_CW_01" in my workflow, so my workflow automatically selects the input file? With kind regards, Önder

[@NPT]

Hi Önder, yes, so you would still use the Dynamic Input Tool except you would update the path using a Formula tool prior to the Dynamic Input. Then you would just feed in the Field containing the path and use that Field as the path. In your case, the Formula would simply calculate (or increment) the file path for the next week. I hope my comments make sense. ~ Nathan

[@mekymoney]

Hi Nathan, thanks for your video, still getting this message when I use the Dynamic tool, "no sheet is specified, you must specify a sheet." is away around it? im trying to combine multi Excel files into one master file. Each file has two similar sheets and named the same thing.

[@DanielWeikert]

Hi Nathan, could you do more videos on real world challenges you solved using Alteryx? Would be really interesting. Best regards

[@NPT]

For sure! You're right, those are the most interesting videos. I've been a bit delayed in making content but I have some great ideas lined up.

[@DanielWeikert]

@@NPT Awesome. Can't wait to see it!

[@Mahabirpanigrahi]

HI, If we need to bring a particular sheet from the file what to do ? Am trying to do, but the sheet name suffix by '$' sign, which is causing error ? Please advise

[@stoneage8810]

Hi Nathan, got a quick question. In your first use case there are 9 files to read, assumption is they are all in same format, data type etc. but if one of the 9 files has different data type then when running Alteryx would say it has a different schema than the 1st in the set and thus skipped. So in the end only 8 files got read. Do you know if there is a way to deal with this? I mean let Alteryx still read them all. Or there is no way, the condition for this to work is all files must be exactly the same in every term? Thanks

[@dperaltao]

Hi mate, did you find a way to solve it?

[@stoneage8810]

@@dperaltao no, but i think there are some macros online you can search, it has a way to read everything

[@ahmedkhan-fb1gf]

How can i combine miltiple in alteryx. Please help.

[@praveengirish3235]

Does this work for Excels that are not CSV formats as well?

[@rajkuppili1]

oh so i see why...thx 😀

[@NPT]

No problem 👍

[@nitinmanerikar7738]

Power query is much better

[@RohitShinde-zl4uq]

Is this tool necessary for passing the Alteryx Designer Core exam