Overview of Macros

Limitations

• You cannot create macros from steps that contain the following:
  • Multi-dataset operations like join, union, and lookup
  • Data-dependent transformations like header, valuestocols, and pivot.

  • Other macros

    NOTE: In macros, Rename Columns transformations do not work. This is a known issue.

• You cannot create macros in flows that you do not own.
• Parameter limitations on the following types:
  • limits
  • enums
  • arrays

Examples

Example 1 - Reformat headers

Suppose one of your downstream systems has the following requirements for column headers:

• No spaces. Underscore is ok.

You can do the following:

1. For the recipe on which you are working, create a new recipe. 
2. In this new empty recipe, add the steps to configure your headers according to the above requirements.
   1. No spaces. Underscores are ok:
      
      

      Transformation Name	Rename columns based on a pattern
      Parameter: Option	Find and replace
      Parameter: Columns	*
      Parameter: Find	' '
      Parameter: Replace with	'_'
      Parameter: Match all occurrences	true

3. Select the above step. In the context menu for it, select Create macro....
   
   1. Enter a Name and optional Description value. Click Next.
   2. In the Create Macro dialog, you can review the step and its specified field values. 
   3. To save the macro, click Save.
4. For any recipe that must generate results for this downstream system, you can insert this macro as the last step before publication. For example, you can delete the recipe where you made the macro and insert the macro reference in the preceding recipe.

Example 2 - Redact data for sensitive column data types

For security reasons, you may decide that sensitive information must be redacted before it is delivered as an output for downstream consumption. For the following data types, you may wish to remove the sensitive information at the end of your transformation process:

• Credit card numbers
• Social Security numbers

1. For the recipe on which you are working, create a new recipe. 
2. In this new empty recipe, add the following steps.
   1. Redact social security numbers:
      

      Transformation Name	Edit formula
      Parameter: Columns	*
      Parameter: Formula	IF(ISVALID($col,'SSN'),'##REDACTED##',$col)

   2. Redact credit card numbers: For this one, you can use the following transformation to mask the numbers except for the last four digits using Alteryx patterns:
      

      Transformation Name	Replace text or patterns
      Parameter: Columns	*
      Parameter: Find	`{start}{digit}{4}{any}{digit}{4}{any}{digit}{4}{any}({digit}{4}){end}`
      Parameter: Replace with	XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-$1

      NOTE: The above transformation matches values based on the structure of the data, instead of the data type. If for some reason, you have values that are not credit card numbers yet follow the credit card pattern, those values will be masked as well by this transformation.

3. Select the above steps. In the context menu for it, select Create macro....
   
   1. Enter a Name and optional Description value. Click Next.
   2. In the Create Macro dialog, you can review the step and its specified field values. 
      1. You may wish to parameterize the Find and Replace with values. For example, for some uses of the macro, you may wish to replace with an empty string or a value like ##REDACTED## like the previous macro. 
   3. To save the macro, click Save.
4. For any recipe that must generate results for this downstream system, you can insert this macro as the last step before publication. For example, you can delete the recipe where you made the macro and insert the macro reference in the preceding recipe.

Create

A macro is created from a sequence of steps inside a recipe.

• The steps do not have to occur consecutively in the recipe. 
• Recipe steps are added to the macro in the order that they are listed in the recipe.
• Some recipe steps cannot be added to a macro, so the option to create a macro with these types of steps is not available.

For more information, see Create a Macro. 

Apply

After a macro is created, you can apply an instance of it anywhere in your recipes. See Apply a Macro.

Manage

After macros have been created, you can manage them through the Library. For more information, see Macros Page.