- Release 9.7
- Trifacta Application
- Reference
- UI Reference
- Transformer Page
- Column Menus
Column Menus
You can use the menus available in a column context menu to perform a variety of actions on the column or columns.
Column menus are available in the following pages:
Depending on the data type of the column, the available options may vary.
Note
In the Column Browser panel, you can select multiple columns at the same time. The displayed column menu items are only the ones that apply to columns of all data types.
Data Type Menu
On the left side of the column header, in the Data Grid you can click the data type icon to review and select a different data type for the column.
When you select the Datetime data type, you can choose the format against which values in the column are validated. See Choose Datetime Format Dialog.
For more information, see Supported Data Types.
Action Menu
On the right side of the column header, select the drop-down caret to choose one of the following actions.
Some options are available only for specific data types.
In most cases, these actions result in a new step being inserted at the current location in your recipe. Before you apply one, you should verify that you are at the proper position in the recipe to apply this step.
When a single column is selected in the Column Browser panel, you can use this option to select the data grid and change its focus to display the selected column.
Tip
Use the Column Browser panel to quickly locate and select columns for display or other actions. See Column Browser Panel.
Unlock the column's data type. For more information, see Change Column Data Type.
Rename the column.
For more information on column name requirements, see Rename Columns.
Change the data type of the column. See Supported Data Types.
Move the column to the beginning or end or to a specified location in the dataset.
Hide this column from display in the application. To redisplay this column, you must select it in the Visible Columns panel. See Visible Columns Panel.
Note
Hide/Show commands do not create transformation steps. Hidden columns still exist in the output.
Note
When a column is hidden from a dataset, it is hidden for all users. You should check the column browser for hidden columns in shared datasets.
Sort: Sort the values in the column by ascending or descending value. This command does not apply to some data types.
Note
Sort is intended primarily for display purposes in the Transformer page.
When a column is sorted in ascending order, the bottom values are mismatched and null values, in that order. These values appear at the top of the column when sorted in descending order.
For more information, see Sort Rows.
Modify the column values based on a formula that you input. For more information, see Transform Builder.
Format the values in the column according to the selection.
Note
This menu is available only for columns of String and Datetime type.
Calculate a new column containing the values computed from the source column based on the selected function. This command does not apply to all data types.
Using a source column, you can create a new column using the source values as examples.
Tip
The transformation-by-example feature can be used in place of standardization or extraction transformations and may be simpler to use.
Note
This feature may need to be enabled in your environment.
For more information on transformation-by-example, see Overview of TBE.
Group by minimum or maximum value, counts, or arbitrary function. See Create Aggregations.
Generate summary table based on computations aggregated across groups.
Restructure your dataset by converting column values to columns, nesting values into objects or arrays, and unpivoting your data.
Filter the rows in your dataset based on column values, duplicate values in the column, or other condition. See Filter Data.
Replace values in the selected column with based on text values, patterns, or delimiters. See Replace Groups of Values.
Standardize individual and clustered row values for consistency. See Standardize Page.
Extract values from the selected column based on text values, specific types of data, or patterns in the data. Optionally, extracted data can be removed from the source. See Extract Values.
Split the column into separate columns based on patterns, delimiters, positions in the value, or regular intervals throughout the value.
Explore the interactive profile of the column details. See Column Details Panel.
Highlight steps in the recipe panel where the selected column is referenced.
If another column is dependent on the selected column, all steps pertaining to that column are highlighted as well.
To dismiss the highlighting, click Clear at the top of the recipe panel.
For more information on disabling this feature, see Miscellaneous Configuration.
Perform a lookup of the column values against a set of values in another column of another dataset. See Lookup Wizard.
Remove the column from the dataset.
Tip
You can also select Hide to remove the column from display in the data grid. The column does remain as part of the dataset and is included in any generated results.
Delete the columns other than the selected column(s) from the dataset.
You can copy and paste columns and column values into other areas of your dataset. For more information, see Copy and Paste Columns.