Data Types
Alteryx processes values based on the data type. Alteryx supports string, numeric, date-time, and boolean data types, as well as, spatial objects.
You can use the Select tool, or any tool that includes select functionality, to modify the type of data in a column. For more information, go to Select Tool, Append Fields Tool, Join Tool, Join Multiple Tool, Find Nearest Tool, and Spatial Match Tool.
String Data
A string represents alphanumeric data and can include letters, numbers, spaces, or other types of characters. You can also think of a string as plain text. All the characters in a string are processed as text even if the characters are digits.
While a string might contain text that looks like a number (for example, "123.4"), you must 1st convert it to a numeric data type (either with a Select tool or with the ToNumber Functions) to perform calculations.
It is more efficient to store strings as variable-length strings. This is because fixed-length strings reserve space for the specified number of characters, and variable-length strings use only the amount of storage needed for the data in that cell. Set a high limit for fixed-length strings to avoid truncating data.
Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
String | Fixed Length Latin-1 String. The length should be at least as large as the longest string you want to be contained in the field, or values are truncated. Limited to 8192 Latin-1 characters. | Any string whose length does not vary much from value to value, and only contains simple Latin-1 characters. |
WString | Wide String accepts any character (Unicode.) Limited to 8192 characters. | Any string whose length does not vary much from value to value and contains any character. |
V_String | Variable Length. The length of the field adjusts to accommodate the entire string within the field. | Any string whose length varies from value to value, and only contains simple Latin-1 characters. |
V_WString | Variable Length Wide String. The length of the field adjusts to accommodate the entire string within the field and will accept any character. | Any string whose length varies from value to value and contains any character. |
Numeric Data
There are several different numeric data types including integers, decimals, floats, and doubles. With the exception of the Fixed Decimal type, numeric data types are not adjustable in length.
Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Byte | A unit of data that is 8 binary digits (bits) long. A byte field is a positive whole number that falls within the range 0 thru 255, or 28 | 0, 1, 2, 3....253, 254, 255 |
Int16 | A numeric value without a decimal equal to 2 bytes, or -(215) to (215)-1 | –32,768 to 32,767 |
Int32 | A numeric value without a decimal equal to 4 bytes, or -(231) to (231)-1 | –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 |
Int64 | A numeric value without a decimal equal to 8 bytes, or -(263) to (263)-1 | –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 |
Fixed Decimal | A numeric value with a decimal. The length (precision) of a fixed decimal is equal to the width of the integer (left side of decimal) plus the decimal point plus the width of the scale (right side of decimal). If a number is negative, the negative sign is also included in the length. Alteryx defaults a Fixed Decimal to 19.6. The maximum precision is 50, inclusive of the decimal point and negative sign (if applicable). A Fixed Decimal is the only numeric data type with an adjustable length. Be careful when using Fixed Decimal in the Formula tool and when converting Fixed Decimal to Float or Double. In Formula, Fixed Decimal is implicitly converted into Double. The maximum precision for the Double data type is 15 digits and for Float 7 digits. If you are converting Fixed Decimal, you need to expect to lose all the data that couldn’t fit into the type you are converting to. | A value of 1234.567 with a length of 7.2 results in 1234.57 A value of 1234.567 with a length of 7.3 results in a field conversion error and Null output, as the value does not fit within the specified precision. A value of 1234.567 with a length of 6.1 results in 1234.6 A value of 1234.567 with a length of 8.3 results in 1234.567 A value of -1234.567 with a length of 8.3 results in a field conversion error and Null output, as the value does not fit within the specified precision. A value of 1234.567 with a length of 11.6 results in 1234.567000 A value of 12222222222222222222222222222222222.00000 when converted to Double results in 1.22222222222222e+34 A value of 1.983274187638715245 when converted to Double results in 1.98327418763872 |
Float | A standard single-precision floating-point value. It uses 4 bytes, and can represent values from +/- 3.4 x 10-38 to 3.4 x 1038 with 7 digits of precision. A float uses a decimal that can be placed in any position and is mainly used to save memory in large arrays of floating-point numbers. | +/- 3.4 x 10-38 to 3.4 x 1038 with 7 digits precision |
Double | A standard double-precision floating-point value. It uses 8 bytes and can represent values from +/- 1.7 x 10-308 to 1.7 x 10308 with 15 digits precision. A double uses a decimal that can be placed in any position. A double uses twice as many bits as a float and is generally used as the default data type for decimal values. | +/- 1.7 x 10-308 to 1.7 x 10308 with 15 digits |
DateTime Data
Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Date | A 10-character String in "yyyy-mm-dd" format. | December 2, 2005 = 2005-12-02 |
Time | Default is an 8-character String in "HH:MM:SS" format. Specify additional precision up to 18 digits, for a max of 27 characters, including the decimal separator. | 2:47 and 53 seconds a.m. = 02:47:53 2:47 and 53.236 seconds p.m. = 14:47:53.236 |
DateTime | Default is a 19-character String in "yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS" format. Specify additional precision up to 18 digits, for a max of 38 characters, including the decimal separator. | 2011-05-15 07:20:33 2005-12-02 14:47:53.123456 |
Note
Date, Time, and DateTime data types can be treated as strings when you use functions in a tool with an expression editor. Refer to the DateTime Data table above for descriptions and examples.
Converting to DateTime Data Types
When it converts to date-time data types, the engine parses the data either up to the max precision for that data type (Date = 10, Time = 27, or DateTime = 38 characters) or up until it encounters an unexpected character based on the date-time data type it expects. Then, the engine converts that parsed value to the specified data type and applies the appropriate amount of precision if specified (including padding characters for sub-second time if required).
In some cases, this might provide different results for date-time conversions done in versions prior to 2023.1, as the rules for conversions were not consistently applied prior to the implementation of additional DateTime precision.
Note that tools built with Legacy Alteryx SDKs will produce different results in version 2023.1 than in previous versions.
Boolean Data
Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Bool | An expression with only two possible values: True or False. | The words 'True' and 'False' display in the results where 'False' = 0 and 'True' = non-zero. |
Spatial Objects
Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
SpatialObj | The spatial object associated with a data record. A table can contain multiple spatial object fields. | A spatial object can consist of a point, line, polyline, or polygon. |