Shape · Columns

Select Columns

Keeps only the columns you pick and drops the rest.

Also known as: Drop columns, select

How it works

Pick the columns under Columns to keep; the output carries them in the order you listed them and nothing else. With nothing picked the node passes every column through unchanged. A listed column that the input no longer has stops the run with an error, so re-check the list after renaming upstream.

Inputs and outputs

Settings

{
  columns: string[]
}

Example

You have a 60-column CRM export and the report only needs three fields. Pick name, signup_date and amount under Columns to keep; downstream nodes and the written file then carry only those three.

More in Columns

• Rename — Gives columns new names. Type old-to-new pairs, or let the data decide at run time: take the names from the first row (which is then dropped), from a names table on a second input, or from an expression over each old name.
• Cast Types — Changes a column's type, such as text to number or text to date. You choose what happens to a value that won't convert: stop the run, or make it blank with or without a warning.
• Parse — Turns messy text into real values: dates and times, numbers with separators or currency signs, true/false, durations, measurements with units, and coordinates.
• Add Column — Adds a column worked out by a formula, a fixed value, today's date or the current time, or a parameter. For example, margin = Price − Cost. Excel's finance functions such as PMT work here by name; see Formulas and finance functions.
• Multi-field Formula — Applies one formula to many columns at once, such as rounding every price column. Overwrite the columns or write new ones beside them.
• Multi-row Formula — Works out a column from the current row and its neighbours, including the column's own value on the previous row. Use it for fill-down, running totals or carrying the last value forward.
• Fill Missing — Replaces blanks with a fixed value, an empty string, or the previous or next value, or drops those rows. It can also drop rows or columns that are entirely empty.
• Replace Values — Swaps text in a column for other text, such as 'N/A' to blank or 'NY' to 'New York'. Each rule replaces its text wherever it appears in a value, as plain text or a pattern.
• Replace via Mapping — Swaps values in one or more columns using a second table of from → to pairs, such as a code list turning 'NY' into 'New York'. Values with no match stay as they are, or fail the run if you choose.
• Interpolate NULLs — Fills blank numbers by estimating from the known values around them, in a straight line or by taking the nearest one. For example, missing sensor readings.
• Clip Values — Caps numbers at a lower and/or upper bound. Anything below becomes the minimum, anything above becomes the maximum.
• Bin — Turns a number into a labelled band, using your own break points or equal-width buckets. For example, ages into 0–17, 18–64 and 65+.
• Format Table — Sets how columns print in previews and reports: currency, percent, decimals, thousands separators, date masks, alignment and hidden columns. The values themselves don't change.
• Format to Text — Turns a number, date or time column into formatted text: thousands separators, fixed decimals, currency or a date pattern. The pattern can come from another column, row by row. Unlike Format Table, this changes the data.
• Audit Stamp — Adds columns that record when the row was loaded, from which source, and in which run. Use it before writing to a warehouse so you can trace every row.