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

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

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=====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)|

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=====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:**  Given the table of responses to questions below, summarize the response values.

**Source table**
^Question ^ Response^
|Q1|1|
|Q2|3|
|Q3|4|
|Q1|2|
|Q2|3|
|Q3|5|
|Q1|3|
|Q2|1|
|Q3|3|

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**Transformation parameters:**
> Concatenate: Response
> Separator: Comma


**Output table:**
^Response ^
|1,3,4,2,3,5,3,1,3|

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:**  Using the table from Example 1, summarize the response values, grouped by the Question.

**Transformation parameters:**
> Concatenate: Response
> Distinct: checked on
> Separator: Comma
> Group by: Question


**Output table:**
^Question ^Response ^
|Q1 |1,2,3 |
|Q2 |3,1 |
|Q3 |4,5,3 |

If the source table was presorted by //Question// then //Response// the result table would be:
^Question ^Response ^
|Q1 |1,2,3 |
|Q2 |1,3 |
|Q3 |3,4,5 |


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

  * [[transformations:Aggregate|Aggregate]]