Choose Table or Specify Query Window

The Choose Table or Specify Query window displays when you select an input containing multiple tables. You can select tables and construct queries to pull data from relational databases.

Alteryx Designer uses Active Query Builder, a third party component for building complex SQL queries. For more information, see the Active Query Builder User's Guide.

There are four tabs:

Tables

The Tables tab displays all of the tables and views contained within the specified relational database. To refresh the cached list of tables, click Refresh. To select a table:

  1. Select a table/view in the list.
  2. Click OK to open the table, or select another tab to build a query directly from this table/view.

You can also bypass this tab and proceed to the subsequent tabs to build a query utilizing multiple tables/views.

Visual Query Builder

Visual Query Builder caches and loads tables from databases only when the table view is opened. The Visual Query Builder tab consists of three sections for querying tables and creating data relationships between tables.

Visual Query Builder may load slowly with large Hive, Impala, or Spark database clusters. Use the Tables tab or SQL Editor tab for better performance when connecting to these databases.

Stored Procedures

Click this tab to access stored procedures. The Alteryx engine is not used when executing a stored procedure. The execution happens entirely on the database server.

Stored procedures are only supported for Microsoft SQL Server accessed using standard input tools.

The Stored Procedures tab contains two panes:

SQL Editor

The SQL Editor displays your query from the Visual Query Builder tab in Structured Query Language. The SQL editor will translate the query language from the Visual Query Builder tab into the SQL-equivalent syntax. Likewise, a change in the SQL Editor will automatically change the query components of the Visual Query Builder.

Alternatively, you can enter your own query into this box, bypassing the Visual Query Builder. You can also add or omit elements contained in this box to execute the desired query.