Table of Contents
TABLE METADATA
Category: Transform / Advanced
Description
This action obtains various metadata of the current dataset.
Use cases
- Obtaining column names can be helpful in determining whether a column exists, or is missing, in a table.
- Together with the Rename columns with lookup and Select by lookup actions, this action allows dealing with datasets whose column names are not fixed or known in advance.
- Table metadata can be used to obtain the total number of rows or a list of column names in a table.
- For data that appears numeric in nature (zip codes, phone numbers, ID numbers, etc.), this action can identify whether the data is being captured as numeric or text.
- This action can help determine if numeric data in a given column is falling within an expected range (min and max values).
Action settings
Table metadata
| Metadata item | Description |
|---|---|
| Table name | The name of the dataset. |
| Total number of columns | The number of columns in the dataset. |
| Total number of rows | The number of rows in the dataset. |
Column metadata
| Metadata item | Description |
|---|---|
| Column names | The names of all of the columns in the dataset. |
| Distinct count | The count of distinct values in the column. |
| All unique | Whether all values in the column are unique. Returns TRUE or FALSE. |
| Empty count | The count of empty cells in the columns. |
| Error count | The count of errors appearing in the column. |
| Text count | The number of text-based values in the column. |
| Number count | The number of numeric values in the column. |
| Integer count | The number of integers in the column. (Numeric columns only.) |
| Non-integer count | The number of floating-point numeric values in the column. (Numeric columns only.) |
| Min number | The smallest numeric value in the column. (Numeric columns only.) |
| Max number | The largest numeric value in the column. (Numeric columns only.) |
| Min text length | The length in characters of the shortest text value in the column. (Text columns only.) |
| Max text length | The length in characters of the longest text value in the column. (Text columns only.) |
| Original name | If the column has been renamed, what the original name was. |
| Number format | The defined format of the numeric data in the column. (Numeric columns only.) |
| Annotation | Annotations for the column. |
Remarks
When selecting column-based metadata items, it is helpful to ensure the "Column names" item has been selected to confirm what column the metadata results are associated with.
The metadata generated by this action is based on the structure of the dataset at the point this action is inserted in the action chain. If the raw file's structure has been changed (columns removed or renamed, rows trimmed, etc.) those are the values that will appear.
The "Original name" column item will display the original starting name of the column, regardless of how many times it may have been renamed throughout the workflow. (e.g., it does not show the last name it may have had)
Examples
Example #1
Extract table and column information.
Before (source table)
| River | Length(km) | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 6400 | South America |
| Yangtze | 6300 | Asia |
| Yenisei | 5539 | Asia |
| Mississippi | 6275 | North America |
| Ob | 5410 | Asia |
| Paraná | 4880 | South America |
After (result table)
| Total rows | Column name | Text count | Number count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | |||
| River | 6 | 0 | |
| Length (km) | 0 | 6 | |
| Continent | 6 | 0 |
Action parameters:
Table metadata options: Total rows
Column metadata: Column names, Text count, Number count