Saving field configurations with the Select tool

Working with several data sources, such as XML, CSV, or plain TXT forces us to continually adjust data types since they only return strings. Also, renaming fields to make them easier to understand can be a repetitive task we face when building our Alteryx workflows.

In this recipe, we’ll be following a very effective method of getting the optimal data type and size for our fields, using the Auto Field tool once, and saving its result for later reuse, avoiding having to execute it every time we run the workflow, making us save a lot of runtime.

Getting ready

We’ve prepared a test set for you to follow along with this recipe that you can download here:

https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Alteryx-Designer-Cookbook/tree/main/ch3/Recipe1

If you want to follow along with your own data, make sure you use one of the mentioned data source formats (CSV, XML, or TXT).

How to do it…

Let’s get started...