Alteryx Designer Advanced key terms

Combines two or more inputs by stacking rows vertically. Configuration controls whether fields are matched by name or by position, and whether the output keeps only shared fields, all fields, or errors on mismatch.

Combines two inputs horizontally by matching records on one or more key fields. Outputs three anchors: matched records (J), unmatched left records (L), and unmatched right records (R).

Joins three or more inputs on common key fields in a single tool, supporting inner, full outer, and left/right outer join types without chaining multiple Join tools together.

A configuration in tools like Union and Append Fields that specifies how fields from one input correspond to fields in another, either by matching names or by explicit manual assignment.

Adds every field from a source input to every record of a target input, producing a Cartesian product. Useful for adding constants or single-row lookup values to all rows.

Uses string similarity algorithms such as Jaro-Winkler, Levenshtein, or Soundex to identify records that likely refer to the same entity despite spelling variations, then groups them by match score.

Assigns a shared group identifier to records flagged as matches by the Fuzzy Match tool, so matched records can be collapsed or analyzed as a single entity.

Creates or updates a field using an expression that can reference values from other rows in the same column, such as the previous row, using Row-1 or Row+1 syntax.

Applies one expression to many selected fields at once, with options to create new fields or update existing ones, and to change the output data type of all selected fields.

Pivots data from wide to long format by turning selected columns into rows, producing key and value field pairs. Useful for normalizing cross-tab layouts before analysis.

Pivots data from long to wide format by turning row values into new columns. Configuration requires group fields, a header field, and a value field with an aggregation method.

Splits a single delimited text field into multiple fields or rows based on a chosen delimiter, with control over the number of splits and how extra delimiters are handled.

Applies regular expressions to parse, replace, or match text. Modes include Match, Parse, Replace, and Tokenize, with output options for capturing groups into separate fields.

Converts a text string into an Alteryx date-time value using a format string such as %Y-%m-%d. Returns a proper DateTime type so date arithmetic and sorting work correctly.

Converts a date-time value into a formatted text string using specifiers such as %Y, %m, %d, and %H. The inverse of DateTimeParse for display or export purposes.

A field type that stores geometric data such as points, lines, or polygons, often in a proprietary spatial format. Enables spatial tools to perform geographic operations and calculations.

Determines spatial relationships between two inputs, such as whether points fall within polygons or lines intersect, and appends attributes from the matching spatial records.

Creates polygons representing a catchment area around points, using methods such as drive-time, distance rings, or point-to-point polygons, with configurable radii or time thresholds.

Calculates geometric properties of spatial objects, including area, length, centroid coordinates, and bounding box, and can output these as new numeric fields.

The process of training a statistical or machine-learning model on historical data to estimate outcomes for new records, typically split into training, validation, and scoring phases.

Fits a binary classification model that estimates the probability of a target outcome from one or more predictors, reporting coefficients and classification diagnostics.

A condition where a model fits training data too closely, capturing noise rather than general patterns, which causes poor performance on new or unseen data.

A technique that partitions data into multiple folds, training and testing the model on different subsets to estimate how well it generalizes to unseen records.

A reusable workflow saved with a .yxmc extension that runs as a single tool inside another workflow, using Control Parameter inputs and Macro Output anchors to pass data.

A macro that runs its inner workflow once per incoming record or group, driven by a Control Parameter, and typically unions the results back together.

A macro that repeatedly runs its inner workflow until a stopping condition is met, using an iteration output anchor to feed results back into the next pass.

A special macro input that passes configuration values, such as a field name or filter value, into a macro's inner workflow rather than passing data records.

Inside a macro, connects to another tool and modifies its configuration at run time, enabling dynamic behavior driven by interface elements or control parameters.

A family of tools, including Drop Down, Text Box, and File Browse, that build the user-facing question screen of an analytic app and feed answers into the workflow.

An Alteryx workflow wrapped with interface tools and optionally a chain of apps, so end users can supply parameters through a question screen and run the workflow without editing it.

A Designer feature that stores the output of selected tools so downstream tools can be re-run without recomputing upstream steps, speeding up iterative development.

A dialog listing all external files, macros, and database connections a workflow references, allowing paths to be made relative for portability across machines.

A workflow run option that records how long each tool takes and how many records it processes, helping developers locate bottlenecks in a slow workflow.

Writes workflow results to a file or database in a chosen format, with options to overwrite, append, or create new sheets and to control field delimiters and encoding.

Reads data from files, databases, or cloud sources into a workflow, with configuration for file format, delimiters, field types, and record limits.

A saved, named configuration for accessing a data source, such as an ODBC connection or a gallery data connection, that workflows reference instead of embedding credentials.

A set of tools that build SQL queries executed directly against a database, pushing processing to the server so large datasets need not be pulled into the workflow.