We are big fans of Trifacta. Trifacta is always releasing new features and bug fixes so this blog covers the latest updates in the release of Trifacta Enterprise Wrangler Version 4 dated 03.03.2017.

What’s new

This release features menu-based shortcuts for accessing common transformations, a visualisation of relationships between datasets in flows, human-readable recipe steps, and a number of new Wrangle functions and capabilities. Details are below.
Workspace:

• The new flow details page includes a visual representation of your flow and detailed information about its datasets and recipes. From the Flow View page, users can swap datasets as well. See Flow View Page.

Transformer Page:

• Column width settings now persist across transform steps, other actions, and user sessions. See Transformer Page.
• Wrangle steps can now be displayed in natural language. See Data Grid Panel.
• New column menu shortcuts allow you to quickly assemble recipe steps from menu selections, based on a column’s data type. See Column Menus.
• New column browser streamlines interactions involving multiple columns. See Column Browser Panel.

Language:

• Window transform now supports the use of aggregation functions. See Window Transform.
• New NOW and TODAY functions.
• See NOW Function.
• See TODAY Function.
• New ROLLINGSUM function computes the rolling sum over a specified number of rows before and after the current row. See ROLLINGSUM Function.
• New ROLLINGAVERAGE function computes the rolling average over a specified window. See ROLLINGAVERAGE Function.
• New ROWNUMBER function computes the row number for each row, based on order and optional grouping parameters. See ROWNUMBER Function.
• New COUNTA function can be used to count the number of non-null values in a column based on order and grouping parameters. See COUNTA Function.
• New COUNTDISTINCT function counts the distinct number of values in a specified column. See COUNTDISTINCT Function.
• Four new functions for testing conditional data validation: IFNULL, IFMISMATCHED, IFMISSING, and IFVALID. See Type Functions.
• New *IF functions for each available aggregation function. See Aggregate Functions.
• For more information, see Changes to the Language.

Changes to the Language:

• set and settype transforms now work on multiple columns.
• Recipe steps are now displayed in natural language format by default in the recipe panel and suggestion cards.
• Some functions have been renamed to conform to common function names.
• For more information, see Changes to the Language.

Key Bug Fixes:

• Photon fails to compress output file and is forced to restart on download.
• Publish to Redshift fails for single-file outputs.
• Join tool hangs due to mismatched data types.
• When Photon is enabled, no sample data is displayed when joins yield a data mismatch.
• After Release 3.2.1 upgrade, data grid in the Transformer Page no longer displays any data in the sample, even though data is present in the pre-upgrade environment.

You can see the full Version 4 Release notes here, and the updates for each release here.
Jack – Success is preparation meets opportunity.