Data Types in Alteryx

In Alteryx, a comprehensive understanding of the data types is essential as the data preparation and calculations rely on data types. Alteryx supports multiple data types including String, Numeric, Date-time, Boolean, and Spatial objects. Most of the data types can be adjusted or converted using Select Tool to meet specific requirements. Let's dive into each data type category and examine the considerations while defining and converting data types in Alteryx.

String Data

All text-related data are stored in string data which includes alphabetic, numeric, spaces, and other types of characters. There are four types of data in string data: String, WString, V_String, and V_WString.

String

It is a fixed-length string that accepts only Latin-1 characters. It is limited to 8192 characters. It is recommended to set a character limit of the largest value that should be entered in the field. If the value is larger than the set limit, the values are truncated. For example, if the string limit is set to 10 and the value is 'Altreyxisfun' then it appears as 'Altreyxisf'.

WString

Similar to string data type, WString (Wide String) accepts any characters including Unicode and other international language characters.

V_String

Variable Length String (V_String) data type dynamically adjusts the length to accommodate the string data stored within the field. It accepts only Latin-1 characters.

V_WString

Variable Length Wide String (V_WString) dynamically adjusts the length to accommodate the string data stored within the field and accepts any characters including Unicode and other international language characters.

Numeric Data

There are several types of numeric data in Alteryx which includes integers, decimal, floats, and double.

Byte

This data type only accepts positive whole numbers ranging from 0 to 255 or 28

Int16

An integer that is equal to 2 bytes without decimal places ranging from -215 to +215-1 i.e. -32768 to 32767.

Int32

An integer that is equal to 4 bytes without decimal places that range from -231 to +231-1 i.e. it accepts values ranging from-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

Int64

An integer that is equal to 4 bytes without decimal places that range from -263 to +263-1 i.e. it accepts values ranging from–9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

Fixed Decimal

This numeric data type is a number with decimal places whose length can be adjusted based on precision and decimal places. A length or precision is the total width of the data including -/+ signs, a decimal, and the numbers before and after the decimal. For e.g. for the number -45.345, the precision is 7 and the decimal place is 3.

Float

It is a data type that holds numeric values with precise decimal places. It uses 4 bytes and can hold values with +/- 3.4 x 10^38 to 3.4 x 10^38 with 7 digits of precision.

Double

It is a data type similar to but more precise than float. It uses 8 bytes and can hold values from the range +/- 1.7 x 10^308 to 1.7 x 10^308 with 15 digits precision.

Date/Time Data

Date

In Alteryx, the date value is a 10-character string value that stores in “yyyy-dd-mm” format. Any fields with other date formats should be changed into this format in Alteryx to work. For example, July 31, 2020, must be changed to 2020-07-11 DateTime parse tool.

Time

It is an 8-character string value in “HH:MM:SS” format by default. We can specify the additional value up to 18 digits to increase the precision. For example, 07:53:34 is a time value, and you can specify additional digits to define the precision of milliseconds i.e. 07:53:34.452

DateTime

A DateTime data type represents both the date and time value in a single cell. It is a 19-character string in "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss" format. for e.g. "2020-07-11 07:53:34"

Boolean Data

Bool

This data type only accepts two possible values, zero representing false and any non-zero numbers representing false. For e.g, if your field has 0,1,2,3 and is in bool data type, 0 is considered 'False' and other non-zero numbers (1,2,3) are considered 'True". It is recommended to use binary numbers (1 and 0) to represent the True and False conditions for this field.

Spatial Objects

SpatialObj

This data type stores the spatial objects which are the digital representation of geographical entities used for data management and analysis. It can consist of a point, line, polyline, or polygon.

You can access further information regarding the data types utilized in Alteryx by following the link provided here.

Author:
Nitesh Shrestha
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