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Intro to Alteryx

This guide provides an introduction to several of the frequently used tools in Alteryx.

Transform Tools

Running Total tool    

The Running Total tool calculates a cumulative sum on a numeric field per record in a file.

Open the Rep Tracking datafile, then use the Input Data tool to bring the file onto the workspace.  Next, locate the Running Total tool under Transform and drag it down onto the workspace.  Connect the Running Total tool to the Input Data tool.

Look for the "Create Running Total" box in the Configuration Pane and select "Sales".

Now Click on RUN.   A new column, RunTot_Sales has been added to the spreadsheet.  This column contains the running total of sales by all reps.

 

Go back and in the box, "Group By" in the Configuration Pane, select Segment and run the workflow again.

Once the workflow is run, the RunTot_Sales is now a running total of sales grouped by segment (consumer type).

Summarize tool    

The Summarize tool can conduct a host of summary processes such as grouping, summing, and count.

Disconnect and delete the Running Total tool from the Rep Tracking datafile in the last workflow.  Locate the Summarize tool under transform, drag it onto the workspace and connect it to the Rep Tracking datafile.

Click to select the field to perform summaries on. Use the Select drop-down to the right to make multiple field selections.

First, highlight the field to use.

 

Click on Add to add the field to the Actions box. Next, use the dropdown menu to specify the summary action to be taken.  Summary actions are defined by the data type added, so some actions may be grayed out and unavailable.  For this workflow, select "Group By" for Rep and "Sum" for Sales. This will give us a total of sales by sales rep.

Click in the "Output Field Name" to change the name of the field.

When finished with selections, run the workflow and view results.

The results show a list of each sales rep along with their sales.  When we view our results, we notice extra decimal places with several entries. Attache a Formula tool to our workflow and we can write a formula to round off the Sum_Sales values.

Now. let's enter our formula

Once the formula is entered, click RUN.

All Sum_Sales values have now been rounded off.

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