Ability to hide columns / attributes in data prep but still be able to use the

Nina Asenbauer

Description

In data prep within a project I would like to be able to hide a column so it's not visible in report view but still usable for joins, calculations etc. 

Use Case and Business Need

Oftentimes, columns are doubled up or IDs that are only needed for joins or calculations but not for use in reporting. It would make for a far cleaner data model if only the columns report creators really need would be visible in the final data pane.

More details

If you hide a column via right-click in data prep, that column is effectively gone from the dataset and can't be used for joins, calculations etc. anymore. The only way to achieve a clean data DV data model right now is to do join everything in a data flow and then clean up the non-essentials columns at the end.

Original Idea Number: e3f8c85e22

Luis E. Rivas -Oracle

Hi - Thank you for submitting the idea - in order to take this idea into consideration, we need a bit more information -

1. For Calculations after a hide requirement - do you mean just in Prep or also in MyCalculations in the Projects? And therefore the only place the columns would be hidden is from the Data Elements Tree.

2. By Joins - I assume you mean Blend Join Keys correct? Since Blends are done at the Project level - that would mean exposing these hidden columns just for Blend Key purposes.

Any other considerations?

Regards,

Luis

Nina Asenbauer

1. you're right - I thought along the lines of using them for calculations in data prep, but not MyCalulations. My main concern is a cleaner looking "data model" in the data elements tree without unnecessary key columns, duplicates etc.  - this would also concern the upcoming multi-table data sets, right? Maybe it could also work if it where available in MyCalculations when explicitly called but not in the general data elements tree.

2. I mean the data blend, yes.

 

In general, I found it confusing that "hide" column would effectively render the column unusable even in data blend -  I guess it's not quite clear to me why I wouldn't just delete it in the first place instead of hiding it if I didn't need it.

Luis E. Rivas -Oracle

Thanks for the additional information!

We will take this idea under consideration and I will post any progress on this thread.

 

Regards,

Luis

User_1VPJ8

Yes, please consider an option to hide the temporary columns that may have created for calculations. Many thanks in advance.