{{ transformations:ConcatenateTextAction.png}}
====== CONCATENATE TEXT ======
Category: Transform / Basic\\

\\ 
=====Description=====
This action concatenates the values in a column, separated by the chosen delimiter.

\\
=====Use cases=====
  *When a target system (exporting to) requires a value list in a single field.
  *Building a column that contains a list of tags.
  *To build a list of values within an API call.

\\ 
=====Action settings=====
^ Setting  ^ Description  ^
|Concatenate|Select the column to concatenate the values of.|
|Distinct|When selected, only the unique values in the column will appear in the concatenated result.|
|Separator|Select the character used to delimit the column values.  Options: //Comma//, //Semicolon//, //Tab//, //Pipe//,\\ //Tilde//, //Space//, //Line break//, //Custom// (and select a character), or //No separator//.|
|Concatenate more columns|Configure additional columns to be included in the output dataset.|
|Group by|Select the column(s) to group the concatenated columns by. (optional)|

\\
=====Remarks=====
The output dataset will consist //only// of the columns selected to be concatenated, and the //Group by// columns chosen, if any.

This action concatenates the column values in the order they are encountered.  If the concatenated values are to appear in a specific order (i.e., ascending or descending), the column will need to be sorted prior to running this action.

\\
=====Examples=====

====Example #1==== 
>Given the table of responses to questions below, summarize the response values.

===Before (source table)===
^Question ^ Response^
|Q1|1|
|Q2|3|
|Q3|4|
|Q1|2|
|Q2|3|
|Q3|5|
|Q1|3|
|Q2|1|
|Q3|3|

===After (result table)===
^Response ^
|**1,3,4,2,3,5,3,1,3**|

===Action parameters:===
> Concatenate: Response
> Separator: Comma

If //Distinct// is selected:
^Response ^
|**1,3,4,2,5**|

Note:  The Response column would need to be sorted prior to this action to have the values concatenated in numeric order (i.e., 1,2,3,4,5).


\\ 
=====See also=====

  * [[transformations:Aggregate|Aggregate]]