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Recipe Basics

In the Transformer page, every transformation that you apply to your data adds a new step to your recipe. A recipe is the sequence of steps that are applied to your imported datasets to transform them for output.

When you select items and apply suggestions or perform other transformative actions in the Transformer page, you are creating new steps for your recipe. Your recipe in development is available through the Recipe panel. If the panel on the right below is not visible, click the Recipe icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen:

CS-RecipeBasics-TransformerPage.png

Figure: Transformer page with Recipe panel

Steps are crafted in a proprietary language. Wrangle is created for use in Dataprep by Trifacta.

  • By default, recipe steps are displayed in a readable, more natural language than the underlying Wrangle.

  • From the Gear icon, you can choose Display language to view the underlying language steps.

Recipe Panel

In the Recipe panel, you can review and manipulate your recipe steps, including re-ordering them, editing them, and disabling them. The list of steps in the Recipe panel represent the current state of your recipe. Each numeric item corresponds to:

  • The sequence number in the recipe when the step is executed.

  • The description of the transformation in the step.

CS-RecipeBasics-RecipePanel.png

Figure: Recipe panel

Key elements of the recipe panel:

  • Recipe cursor: Represented by the dotted line in the above image, the recipe cursor indicates the state of the data in the data grid at that step. The current data is the current sample of data, plus all of the steps between the sample and the recipe cursor.

  • Selected step: The step with the selected checkbox next to it is the currently selected step. In the context menu of the selected step are a set of commands that you can apply to it. See below.

    Tip

    You can select multiple steps using SHIFT + click or CMD/CTRL + click. The available context menu options may change for multiple steps.

    Tip

    If you make a mistake, press CMD/CTRL + Z to try to undo it. Some recipe actions cannot be undone.

Step Actions

Tip

When you add, edit, or delete a recipe step, your changes to the recipe are automatically saved.

Add a new step

Steps:

  1. Move the recipe cursor to the location after which you wish to add a step.

    Tip

    You can also select a step and then select Insert after step to insert a new step.

  2. Click Add New Step.

  3. In the Search panel, search for the transformation or function to add. Select the appropriate one from the list.

  4. Specify the transformation settings as needed.

  5. Click Add.

Edit steps

  • To edit a step, select the step. From the step context menu, select Edit.

    Note

    You cannot change the base transformation of a step. Create a new step instead.

  • To disable a step, select Disable from the step context menu.

    Tip

    Disabling a step is a good way to experiment with different steps at that location. After disabling the step, you can add a new step, which is automatically enabled. If the new step works, then you can safely delete the disabled step.

  • To delete a step, select Delete from the step context menu.

    Warning

    Deleting a step cannot be undone.

Move steps

Steps:

  1. Select the step or steps that you wish to move. You can select multiple steps if needed.

  2. In the step context menu, select Move. In the sub-menu, choose where you wish to move the step or steps.

    Tip

    You can also click the Up/Down arrows in the recipe menu bar.

  3. Make additional selections to move as needed. You can undo the move if needed.

Cut, copy, and paste steps

From the step context menu, you can cut, copy, and paste steps.

Recipe Toolbar

Some of the above commands are also available through the toolbar at the top of the recipe. Additional commands are available through the Gear icon.

Review edit history

You can see the history of changes and who made them to the recipe. From the Gear icon, select See edit history.

Download recipe

You can download the current recipe as a text file containing the Wrangle steps. From the Gear icon, select Download Recipe as wrangle.

Download sample

You can download the current state of the data grid in CSV format. Select the step that you'd like to see in the data grid. Then, from the Gear icon, select Download Sample data as CSV.

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