Briefly and succinctly, Metadata is data that provides information about other data; providing information on the data type, the field name, the source of your data, the size of your data fields, or perhaps a description of your data type.
To best understand metadata, it helps to view the metadata tab. In Alteryx, this can be found on the right-hand side of the view pane. If the metadata option is not available in the view, it can be found on the far right-hand side of the results pane in the arrow drop-down.
To change your data metadata, the best tool to use is a Select tool - which will allow you to change the data type, rename the column field, or provide a description.
Data Types
In the "Type" column, you can see that there are several different types of data. A data type tells your program how to treat the data, whether it is a number or a text file, for example, and how big the field is allowed to be.
Alteryx has 13 data type options:
Numeric Data Types
Numeric data fields can only contain numbers (and decimals). There are some issues with numeric field types and values with leading zeros (such as 01 - the zero would be dropped and the number would appear as just one). So this must be kept in mind.
- Bool - Bool is short for Boolean, this is a true or false calculation, often represented in a binary 1 or 0, where 1 is true, and 0, is false.
- Byte (or Byte Forced) - A unit of data that is 8 binary digits (bits) long. A byte field is a positive whole number that falls within the range of 0-255 (2^8)
- Int16 - A numeric value without a decimal equal to 2 bytes, ranging from -(2^15) to (2^15)-1 which is (-32,768 to 32,767)
- Int32 - A numeric value without a decimal equal to 2 bytes, ranging from -(2^31) to (2^31)-1 which is (-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647).
- Int64 - A numeric value without a decimal equal to 8 bytes or -(2^63) to (2^63)-1 which is (–9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807)
- Fixed Decimal - A Numeric Value with a decimal. A fixed decimal is the only numeric data type with an adjustable length. This is formatted as follows [length of the string].[amount of decimal places], where "length of the string" includes the decimal place. For example, with a Fixed decimal of 7.2, the string 1234.567 will be restricted down to 1234.56.
- Float and Double - are the most precise numbers. A float is a single-precision, floating-point value. It can use up to 4 bytes and represent values from +/- 3.4 x 10-38 to 3.4 x 1038 with 7 digits of precision. Whereas a Double is a double-precision floating point value, using up to 8 bytes of data.
String Data Types
Strings are any piece of data that you would want to keep formatted as entered. A String is any combination of characters, alpha-numeric, and symbols.
- String - Fixed Length Latin-1 String. The length should be at least as large as the longest string you want to be contained in the field, or values are truncated. Limited to 8192 Latin-1 characters.
- WString - Wide String accepts any character (Unicode.) Limited to 8192 characters.
- V_String - Variable Length. The length of the field adjusts to accommodate the entire string within the field.
- V_WString - Variable Length Wide String. The length of the field adjusts to accommodate the entire string within the field and will accept any character.
Data Descriptions
To produce a description for your data in Alteryx, you can also use a Select tool and write a description. Descriptions can be used to ensure your data makes sense to other users.
Information supported by: https://help.alteryx.com/20223/designer/data-types