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Using Databases

This section describes how you interact with your databases through the Alteryx Analytics Cloud.

  • Specific versions of each database are supported.

  • Connections must be enabled and configured for each type of supported database.

  • See Connection Types.

Before You Begin

  • Read Access: Your database administrator must configure read permissions to the appropriate databases, tables and views for your use.

  • Write Access: Some relational connection types support write access. For more information, see Connection Types.

Access

Database access is managed through connections.

Storing Data in Relational Databases

Note

The does not modify source data nor store transformed data in the relational systems. Datasets sourced from database tables or views are read without modification from their source locations.

Reading from Database Tables and Views

You can create a Alteryx dataset from a table or view stored in a connected database.

Tip

In some scenarios, you can improve performance of loading from database tables by creating a view on the table to restrict the amount of data loaded to only the required fields. Additional, you can pre-filter the dataset using custom SQL statements. See Create Dataset with SQL.

Additional Notes on Database Views

  • Some metadata, such as row counts, is not available for database views.

  • For complex view definitions that require significant processing on the database, there may be a significant delay when previewing the contents of those views. In some cases, the preview may time out waiting for the database to respond with the view contents.

For more information, see Database Browser.

Running Jobs from Database Sources

Note

When executing a job using a relational source, the job may fail if one or more columns has been dropped from the underlying source table.

Writing to Databases

Relational connections can be configured to support writing results back to the database.

Note

You can only write to databases from the Run Job page. You cannot ad-hoc publish to a relational database.

Note

When writing to a new table in a relational target, the first entry in any mapping is used for writing out the value. Subsequent entries in the mapping are used for validation only on writing to new tables.

Natively supported connection types are automatically enabled for writeback.