Data Types

Alteryx processes values differently based on data type. Alteryx supports string, numeric, date/time, and boolean data types and spatial objects.

The Select tool, or any tool that includes Select tool functionality, can be used to modify the type of data in a column. See Select Tool, Append Fields Tool, Join Tool, Join Multiple Tool, Find Nearest Tool, Spatial Match Tool.

Update with Alteryx 11.0

With Alteryx 11.0, the conversion of doubles and floats to strings and fixed decimals yields slightly different results compared to previous versions:

  • When converting to a fixed decimal with excessive digits of precision, the conversion accounts for all requested digits and no longer uses noise zeros. (For example, 3.14159265358979123456789 versus 3.14159265358979000000000).
  • When numbers are converted to an exponential format, Alteryx uses a zero-padded, two-digit exponent (1.23e-03) instead of a zero-padded, three-digit exponent (1.23e-003).
  • When rounding to a fixed decimal, Alteryx accurately rounds to the nearest number based on the internal representation of the number. (For example, if 74.876925000 is internally represented as 74.8769249999999999955, converting to a string with five significant digits results in 74.87692, not 74.87693.)