concatenate-columns

Description

concatenate-columns adaptor concatenates values from two or more columns into a single value, with or without a delimiter between them.

The order given in the columns input is the order in which the values are concatenated. By default, the values will be concatenated without a delimiter between them, this can be changed by setting the separator value.

Inputs

data Type: datatable Required: Yes The datatable containing the columns to be concatenated.

columns Type: list Required: Yes A list of columns to be concatenated. The output value matches the listed order.

separator Type: text Required: No Specifies text to separate each concatenated value. Defaults to "" (blank).

concatenated column Type: text Required: Yes The new column containing concatenated values.

Outputs

data Type: datatable A datatable with the concatenated column added.

Examples

Example 1: Default behaviour.

Inputs:

data:

Sample ID	A	B	C
Sample A	R	R	R
Sample B	S	R	S
Sample C	R	S	I
Sample D	I	R	R
Sample E	R	r	R
Sample F	r	r	r

columns:

• A

• B

• C

concatenated column: Result

Outputs:

data:

Sample ID	A	B	C	Result
Sample A	R	R	R	RRR
Sample B	S	R	S	SRS
Sample C	R	S	I	RSI
Sample D	I	R	R	IRR
Sample E	R	r	R	RrR
Sample F	r	r	r	rrr

-> Concatenated the columns A, B and C and added the value to the Result column.

Example 2: Concatenation with a separator.

Inputs:

data:

Sample ID	A	B	C
Sample A	R	R	R
Sample B	S	R	S
Sample C	R	S	I
Sample D	I	R	R
Sample E	R	r	R
Sample F	r	r	r

columns:

• A

• B

• C

concatenated column: Result

separator: ;

Outputs:

data:

Sample ID	A	B	C	Result
Sample A	R	R	R	R;R;R
Sample B	S	R	S	S;R;S
Sample C	R	S	I	R;S;I
Sample D	I	R	R	I;R;R
Sample E	R	r	R	R;r;R
Sample F	r	r	r	r;r;r

-> Concatenated the columns A, B and C and added the value to the Result column with a ; separator.

Use Cases

• Use this adaptor to generate a composite key or ID by concatenating multiple column values

• Combining values from different categorical columns can result in a new categorical variable. This can be useful when you want to create a combined label that captures the essence of the data more effectively.

• Concatenating year, month, and day values from separate columns into a new date column

• When working with data that includes components of URLs or file paths, concatenation can be used to construct these addresses in a new column. This is particularly useful when you need to reference external resources or link to specific locations.

• Concatenating values allows for the creation of a new column with a specific format suitable for display or visualisation labeling purposes.