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Exploring and leveraging predictive transformations
Exploring and leveraging predictive transformations

When you make selections in the Transformer page, Trifacta responds by presenting a set of suggestions for transformations to apply.

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Written by Thea
Updated over 4 years ago

When you make selections in the Transformer page, Trifacta responds by posting a set of suggestions for transformations to apply to the selected data in the sample. You can experiment with these suggestions to see what properly transformations your data.

Selecting data bits in the Transformer

Using highlights and column headers

As you move the cursor around the Transformer page, the cursor changes when it is over a selectable data element. Highlight to generate suggestions based on your selection.

You can also generate suggestions by clicking directly on a column header.

Using the data grid

  • You may select categories of values in a column's data quality bar: Valid, Mismatched, and Missing.

  • You may select one or more values in a column's histogram. Use SHIFT or CTRL to select multiple values.

  • Click a column for column-based operations. Click additional columns to add to your selection. Click a selected column to deselect.

  • Select a whole or partial cell value to prompt suggestions for managing that specific string of data.

Tip: If you CTRL-select multiple partial values in a column of numeric data, the suggestion cards apply to the pattern that matches your selected strings. This does not apply to string data.

In the column browser or column details:

  • Select categories of values in the data quality bar.

  • Select one or more values in a column's histogram.

Suggestion cards

Based on your selections, relevant suggestions appear in suggestion cards:

In the suggestion cards, the label at the top identifies the transformation type that is being recommended, followed by a brief preview of how the selection might transform the data.

Tip: A suggestion card may contain multiple variants for each suggestion. For example, in the previous image the extract suggestion has many variants, which can be selected and reviewed by selecting the dots at the bottom of the card. Additional suggestions may be available. Try horizontal scrolling the set of cards to reveal new suggestions.

Selecting a suggestion

Before you decide on the suggestion to follow, you can do one of the following:

  • Select the suggestion to use. After a suggestion is selected, the changes to the data are previewed in the Transformer page immediately. If there are multiple variants for the suggestion, verify that you are selecting the most appropriate one.

  • Select additional columns or values in the Transformer page. A different pattern-based set of suggestions is presented to you. Make your transformation selection.

  • Modify the suggestion. You may need to customize the suggestion to meet more specific requirements.

  • Start over. If you discover that you have selected the wrong example data, click Cancel. Start again.

Modifying a suggestion

To make the suggestion work for your specific use, you might need to modify the step. For example, for the selected text, you might need to define a replacement value, which TrifactaWrangler may not be able to guess. Click Edit.
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Transformation previews

As soon as you select a suggestion card, the changes are previewed in the Data Grid:

User-added image

In this manner, you can review the change before it is applied to the sample. Tip: You can use the checkboxes in the status bar to display only the rows, columns, or both that are affected by the previewed transformation.

Iterate

Experiment away! Things to keep in mind:

  • If you select the wrong thing, you can always cancel the recipe step. Start again.

  • To delete a step that has already been added, select the step in the Recipe panel and click the Trash icon to delete it.

  • To step back a number of steps in the recipe, select the recipe to which you want to revert and start adding steps. Note that any added steps may invalidate the subsequent steps in your recipe.

  • You can always undo and redo your most recent actions. Use the buttons on the top of the Recipe panel.

  • An executed recipe does not change the source, so you can always step back to your recipe in the Transformer page and revert or modify recipe steps.

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