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

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=====Description=====
This action concatenates text values into delimited text.

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=====Use cases=====
  *When exporting to a target database or system which 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.

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=====Action settings=====
^ Mode  ^ Description  ^
|Concatenate rows|Concatenates a column's values in multiple rows into a single row, separated by the chosen delimiter.|
|Concatenate columns|Concatenates the values of different columns into a single column, separated by the chosen delimiter.|

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====Concatenate rows 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.|
|Ignore empty values|When selected, only values that are not empty 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)|

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====Concatenate columns settings====
^ Setting  ^ Description  ^
|New column name|Name of the new column resulting from the concatenation of existing columns.|
|Columns to concatenate|Select which columns to concatenate. Options: //All columns//, //Selected columns//, //All except selected columns//|
|Remove duplicates|When selected, a value that repeats within the same row appears only once.|
|Ignore empty values|When selected, only values that are not empty will appear in the concatenated result.|
|Don't remove concatenated columns|When selected, concatenated columns will remain in the table.|
|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//.|

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=====Remarks=====
====Concatenate rows 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.

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=====Examples=====

====Example #1 (Concatenate rows)==== 
>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).


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====Example #2 (Concatenate columns)====
>Given the food choices found in multiple columns, summarize them into a single column.

===Before (source table)===
^ Starter ^ Main course ^ Dessert^ 
|Salad|Meat|Cake|
|Soup|Fish|Fruit|
|Pasta|Fish|Cake|
|Soup|Meat|Fruit|
|Salad|Fish|Fruit|
|Pasta|Meat|Cake|
|Pasta|Fish|Cake|
|Soup|Meat|Fruit|

===After (result table)===
^Dinner ^
|**Salad;Meat;Cake**|
|**Soup;Fish;Fruit**|
|**Pasta;Fish;Cake**|
|**Soup;Meat;Fruit**|
|**Salad;Fish;Fruit**|
|**Pasta;Meat;Cake**|
|**Pasta;Fish;Cake**|
|**Soup;Meat;Fruit**|


===Action parameters:===
> New column name: Dinner
> Columns to concatenate: All columns
> Separator: Semicolon

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=====See also=====

  * [[transformations:Aggregate|Aggregate]]