A string function performs operations on text data. Use a string function to cleanse data, convert data to a different format or case, compute metrics about the data, or perform other manipulations. Use string functions with String data types only.
Contains(String, Target, CaseInsensitive=1): Searches for the occurrence of a particular string within a string. Returns True if (String) contains (Target), else returns False.
Contains('123ABC', 'ABC') returns True.
Contains('123ABC', 'abc') returns True.
Contains('123ABC', 'abc', 0) returns False.
CountWords(string): Returns the count of words in the specified string. Words are defined by characters separated by a space.
CountWords("Basic Variables Households") returns 3.
CountWords("Basic Variables Age:Female (Pop)Age 1") returns 5.
DecomposeUnicodeForMatch(String): Removes accents and expands compound characters while converting to a narrow string. This function takes an Alteryx WString data type and converts it to a lowercase, narrow String data type. All accents and other decorations are removed. Refer to Data Types for more information about Alteryx data types.
Important
This function is useful for matching only. It is not considered a normalized string.
The function is not designed for use with non-western character sets like Japanese. You should avoid using this function on strings that might contain wide characters and note that wide characters are converted to '?'.
DecomposeUnicodeForMatch("Prénoms français") returns prenoms francais.
EndsWith(String, Target, CaseInsensitive=1): Checks if a string ends with a particular string. Returns True if (String) ends with (Target), else returns False. It defaults to case insensitive.
EndsWith('123ABC', 'ABC') returns True.
EndsWith('123ABC', 'abc') returns True.
EndsWith('123ABC', 'abc', 0) returns False.
Important
The FindString function is case-sensitive.
FindString(String, Target): Searches for the occurrence of a particular string (Target) within another string (String) and returns the numeric position* of its occurrence in the string.
*Returns the 0-based index of the first occurrence of (Target) in (String). If there is no occurrence, it returns -1.
FindString([Name], "John") returns the 0-indexed position of the first character of the target string if the provided string contains the target and returns -1 when the string does not.
FindString("John Smith", "John")returns 0. The first character of the target string ("J") is in the 0 position or "John Smith."FindString("Michael John Smith", "John")returns 8. The first character of the target string ("J") is in the 8 position (0-based index) of "Michael John Smith."FindString("David Smith", "John")returns -1. The first character of the target string ("J") is not found in the string "David Smith."
GetLeft(String, Delimiter): Returns the left part of the provided (String) until the first instance of the specified 1 or more (Delimiter). Note that if your delimiter contains multiple characters, Alteryx searches for the occurrence of any of these characters, and whichever occurs first in the string is where it splits the string. Refer to the examples below for clarification.
Delimiter Operator
Note that the Delimiter operator is case-sensitive. If you specify "a" as the delimiter, the function only uses "a" as the delimiter, not "A".
GetLeft("Automated Analytics for All", " ") returns "Automated".
GetLeft("Enable fast, confident decisions across the enterprise.", ",") returns "Enable fast".
GetLeft("Automated Analytics for All", "for") returns "Aut".
While you might expect the return to be "Automated Analytics ", this is not the case.
"for" is treated as 3 separate delimiters "f", "o", and "r". Alteryx searches for the first occurrence of any of the characters in "for" in the provided string. In the above example:
"f" is the 21st character.
"o" is the 4th character. Since "o" appears first in the string, the string is split at this character.
"f" is the 23rd character.
It's important to note that the delimiter is case-sensitive. A slight modification to the above example can illustrate this:
GetLeft("Automated Analytics for All", "fOr")returns "Automated Analytics "."f" is the 21st character. Since "f" appears first in the string. The string is split at this character.
"O" does not occur in the string. Note that this is a capital "O".
"r" is the 23rd character.
GetPart(String, Delimiter, Index): Uses the specified 1 or more (Delimiters) to divide (String) into substrings, and returns the substring in the position that is specified in (Index).
Delimiter Operator
Note that the Delimiter operator is case-sensitive. If you specify "a" as the delimiter, the function only uses "a" as the delimiter, not "A".
This function uses a 0-based index. For example, if Index is 2, the function returns the string from the position in index 2, which is the third substring.
GetPart("Automated Analytics for All", " ", 1) returns "Analytics".
GetPart("Automated Analytics for All", " ", 0) returns "Automated".
GetPart("Enable fast, confident decisions across the enterprise.", ", ", 5) returns "across". Note that this example uses 2 delimiters—a comma and a space. The function splits the string when it encounters either delimiter.
GetPart("January 1, 2023", " ", 2) returns "2023".
GetRight(String, Delimiter): Returns the right part of the provided (String) after the first instance of the specified 1 or more (Delimiters). Note that if your delimiter contains multiple characters, Alteryx searches for the occurrence of any of these characters, and whichever occurs first in the string is where it splits the string. Refer to the examples below for clarification.
Delimiter Operator
Note that the Delimiter operator is case-sensitive. If you specify "a" as the delimiter, the function only uses "a" as the delimiter, not "A".
GetRight("Automated Analytics for All", " ") returns "Analytics for All".
GetRight("Enable fast, confident decisions across the enterprise.", ",") returns " confident decisions across the enterprise." (note the space before confident in the return).
GetRight("Automated Analytics for All", "for") returns "mated Analytics for All".
While you might expect the return to be "All", this is not the case.
"for" is treated as 3 separate delimiters "f", "o", and "r". Alteryx searches for the first occurrence of any of the characters in "for" in the provided string. In the above example:
"f" is the 21st character.
"o" is the 4th character. Since "o" appears first in the string, the string is split at this character.
"r" is the 23rd character.
It's important to note that the delimiter is case-sensitive. A slight modification to the above example can illustrate this:
GetRight("Automated Analytics for All", "fOr")returns " or All"."f" is the 21st character. Since "f" appears first in the string. The string is split at this character.
"O" does not occur in the string. Note that this is a capital "O".
"r" is the 23rd character.
GetWord(string, n): Returns the Nth (0-based) word in the string (0-based index means the first word is at the 0 position, the second is at the 1 position, and so on). Words are defined as a collection of characters separated by a space, tab, return, or newline character. Multiple delimiters in a row are treated as a single delimiter.
GetWord("Basic Variables Households", 0) returns "Basic".
GetWord("Basic Variables Households", 1) returns "Variables".
Left(String, len): Returns the first (len) characters of the string (String). If len is less than 0 or greater than the length of String, String remains unchanged.
Left("92688", 3) returns a value of "926".
Length(String): Returns the length of the string (String).
Warning
Length results might differ between this Designer function and SQL functions. This depends on how any particular database handles wide characters and line breaks. For example, newline characters aren't counted in Length in PostgreSQL while they are counted in the Designer Length function, and results in Designer may differ depending on whether the ANSI or Unicode driver is used.
Length("92688") returns a value of 5.
LowerCase(String): Converts a string to lowercase.
LowerCase("M1P 1G6") returns "m1p 1g6".
MD5_ASCII(String): Calculates the MD5 hash of the string. The string is expected to be only narrow characters. Wide characters are converted to '?' before computing the hash. Use for String types, not recommended for WString types. You should avoid using this function on strings that might contain wide characters.
MD5_UNICODE(String): For both the original engine and AMP, calculates the MD5 hash of the string stored as UTF-16.
MD5_UTF8(String): Calculates the MD5 hash of the string stored as UTF-8.
Md5_Ascii("Lá"), stored as Latin1, it takes 2 bytes, 4C E1. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result "0c0ee86cc87d87125ad8923562be952e".
Md5_Ascii("Lá ☢"), the ☢ character, being wide, is replaced with a '?', so it's as if you were computing Md5_Ascii("Lá?"). That is stored as Latin1 in 3 bytes, 4C E1 3F. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result "a5a308ab19acf900efea8fc7b5b77b4d".
Md5_Unicode("Lá"), stored as UTF-16, it takes 4 bytes, 4C 00 E1 00. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result "aa9969dfcca04249842cc457e5b3dd01".
Md5_Unicode("Lá ☢"), when stored as UTF-16 takes 8 bytes, 4C 00 E1 00 3C D8 C8 DF. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result: "7c4762d93572dd02a8a405232e966b18".
Md5_Utf8("Lá"), stored as UTF-8, it takes 3 bytes, 4C C3 A1. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result "68f00289dc3be140b1dfd4e031d733f1".
Md5_Utf8("Lá ☢"), when stored as UTF-8 takes 7 bytes, 4C C3 A1 F0 9F 8F 88. The function computes the MD5 of the bytes, giving the result "383fc0355db728a2078ce41a2ab6211b".
PadLeft (String, len, char): Pads the string to the left with the specified character to the specified length. If the padding (char) is more than one character long, only the first character is used.
PadLeft("M", 4, "x") returns "xxxM".
PadRight (String, len, char): Pads the string to the right with the specified character to the specified length. If the padding (char) is more than one character long, only the first character is used.
PadRight("M", 4, "x") returns "Mxxx".
REGEX_CountMatches(String,pattern,icase): Returns the count of matches within the string to the pattern.
icase is an optional parameter. When specified, the case must match. By default icase=1 (meaning ignore case). If set to 0, the case must match.
REGEX_Match(String,pattern,icase): Searches a string for an occurrence of a regular expression.
Tells if the string matches the pattern from the first character to the end.
To look for something that does not necessarily start at the beginning of the string, start the pattern with '.*'.
To look for something that does not necessarily go all the way to the end of the string, end the pattern with '.*'.
icase is an optional parameter. When specified, the case must match. By default icase=1 (meaning ignore case). If set to 0, the case must match.
REGEX_Match("123-45-6789", "\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}") returns -1 (True).
REGEX_Replace(String, pattern, replace, icase): Allows replacement of text using regular expressions and returns the string resulting from the RegEx find (pattern) and replace (string). All occurrences of the match are replaced, not just the first.
The replace parameter can be either a specified value as shown below or a marked group, like "$1". Make sure that marked groups are wrapped in double quotes.
icase is an optional parameter. When specified, the case must match.
By default icase=1, which means ignore case.
If set to 0, the case must match.
REGEX_Replace("Don't reveal your Social Security number, 123-45-6789","\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}", "CLASSIFIED") returns Don't reveal your Social Security number, CLASSIFIED.
REGEX_Replace("Change all domain names from alteryx@Alteryx.com","@.*\.", "@extendthereach.") returns Change all domain names from alteryx@extendthereach.com.
REGEX_Replace("25 test","(\d+)\s.*","$1") returns 25.
Replace(String, Target, Replacement): Returns the string (String) after replacing each occurrence of the String (Target) with the String (Replacement).
Replace("Good judgment comes from experience", "experience", "awareness") returns "Good judgment comes from awareness"
ReplaceChar(String, y, z): Returns the string (String) after replacing each occurrence of the character (y) with the character (z). If the replacement character (z) is a string with more than one character, only the first character is used. If (z) is empty, each character (String) that matches any character in (y) is simply removed.
ReplaceChar("abcdefb", "b", "_") returns "a_cdef_".
ReplaceChar("@a#b%c", "@,#,%", "_") returns "_a_b_c".
ReplaceFirst(String, Target, Replacement): Returns the string (String) after replacing the first occurrence of the string (Target) with the string (Replacement).
ReplaceFirst("abcdefb", "b", "_") returns "a_cdefb".
ReverseString(String): Reverses all the characters in the string.
ReverseString("abcdefb") returns "bfedcba".
Right(String, len): Returns the last (len) characters of the string. If len is less than 0 or greater than the length of String, the string remains unchanged.
Right("92688", 3) returns a value of "688".
StartsWith(String, Target, CaseInsensitive=1): Checks if a string starts with a particular string. Returns True if String starts with a particular string Target, else returns False.
StartsWith('ABC123', 'ABC') returns True.
StartsWith('ABC123', 'abc') returns True.
StartsWith('ABC123', 'abc', 0) returns False.
STRCSPN(String, y): Returns the length of the initial segment of the string (String) consisting of characters not in the string (y).
STRCSPN("Bob's Amaco", "~!@#$%^&*'()") returns 3. This is a useful test to make sure there is no punctuation in the string.
StripQuotes(String): Removes a matched set of quotation marks or apostrophes from the ends of the string.
StripQuotes("Hello there") returns Hello there.
StripQuotes("'Hello there,' she said.") returns 'Hello there,' she said.
StripQuotes('"Hello there," she said.') returns "Hello there," she said.
STRSPN(String, y): Returns the length of the initial segment of the string (String) consisting of characters in the string (y).
STRSPN("3034408896x105", "0123456789") returns 10. This is a useful test to make sure a string consists of a set of characters.
Substring(String, start, length): Returns the substring of (String) starting at (start), stopping after (length), if provided.
Substring("949-222-4356", 4, 8) returns "222-4356".
Substring("949-222-4356", 4, 6) returns "222-43".
Substring("949-222-4356", 4) returns "222-4356".
TitleCase(String): Converts a string to title case.
TitleCase("john smith") returns "John Smith".
Trim(String, y): Removes the character(s) in the string (y) from the ends of the string (String). Y is optional and defaults to trimming white space. Notice in the TRIM function examples the specified characters are trimmed. It doesn't matter what order the characters are in.
Trim("!see instructions!!!", "!") returns "see instructions".
Trim(" Test123 ") returns "Test123".
TrimLeft(String, y): Removes character in the string (y) from the beginning of the string (String). Y is optional and defaults to trimming white space.
TrimLeft("** special invitation ", " *") returns "special invitation ".
TrimRight(String, y): Removes character in the string (y) from the end of the string (String). Y is optional and defaults to trimming white space.
While you might be passing in a string of characters to trim, the TRIM functions do not respect the order of the characters; it treats the string as a "list." Therefore it will trim ALL of the characters in the list. If you are looking to replace a string, use a REPLACE function or a REGEX function in your expression.
TrimRight("John Smith ") returns "John Smith".
TrimRight("John Smith**","*") returns "John Smith".
Uppercase(String): Converts a string to upper case.
Uppercase("John Smith") returns "JOHN SMITH".
UuidCreate(): Creates a unique identifier.
UuidCreate() returns a unique value such as ba131836-1ba3-4d42-8f7e-b81a99c2e838.
When referencing the length of a string, the first character is counted as 1 (the length of the string "record" is 6).
However, when referencing the character position within a string, positions are actually counted between characters. So think of the first character's position as 0. Therefore, the position of the letter "c" in the string "record" is at position 2.