Book excerpt: Streamline your workflow, transform raw data into actionable insights, and use Alteryx Designer to shape, design, and visualize data Key Features Acquire the skills necessary to perform analytics operations like an expert Discover hidden trends and insights in your data from various sources to make accurate predictions Reduce the time and effort required to derive insights from your data Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format Book DescriptionAlteryx allows you to create data manipulation and analytic workflows with a simple, easy-to-use, code-free UI, and perform fast-executing workflows, offering multiple ways to achieve the same results. The Alteryx Designer Cookbook is a comprehensive guide to maximizing your Alteryx skills and determining the best ways to perform data operations This book's recipes will guide you through an analyst's complete journey, covering all aspects of the data life cycle. The first set of chapters will teach you how to read data from various sources to obtain reports and pass it through the required adjustment operations for analysis. After an explanation of the Alteryx platform components with a particular focus on Alteryx Designer, you’ll be taken on a tour of what and how you can accomplish by using this tool. Along the way, you’ll learn best practices and design patterns. The book also covers real-world examples to help you apply your understanding of the features in Alteryx to practical scenarios By the end of this book, you’ll have enhanced your proficiency with Alteryx Designer and an improved ability to execute tasks within the tool efficientlyWhat you will learn Speed up the cleansing, data preparing, and shaping process Perform operations and transformations on the data to suit your needs Blend different types of data sources for analysis Pivot and un-pivot the data for easy manipulation Perform aggregations and calculations on the data Encapsulate reusable logic into macros Develop high-quality, data-driven reports to improve consistency Who this book is for This book is for data analysts, data professionals, and business intelligence professionals seeking to harness the full potential of the tool. A basic understanding of Alteryx Designer and Alteryx terminology, including macros, apps, and workflows, is all you need to get started with this book.