concatenating two components

[MoriE2]

Hi there, 

Is there a way to concatenate two components (fields) and also apply a condition for example when (c42) contains a specific string value then concat (c42) + ":" + (c28)? 

[yuhuisg]

You can't concatenate two fields as you've described, not in Analysis Workspace. You'll have to perform such concatenation in another tool, e.g. Excel.

What problem are you trying to solve?

[MoriE2]

I wanted to combine the value of these fields when reporting and in a meantime avoid queuing up another attribute mapping request for backend devop. For example: if (c12) is Type and (c13) is Location I wanted  to report it in Analysis Workspace as A : California 

[yuhuisg]

I see. Well, yes, development would be the only way to go to concatenate the 2 values as you require, and then you'll only need one prop to store that concatenated value.

The next best thing that you can do in reporting is to build a freeform table with your prop12 "Type" dimension, then breakdown that dimension's values by prop13 "Location". But you'll have to remember to breakdown all prop12 values, and you'll also end up with a lot of rows.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You could also use Processing Rules to concatenate two values into another prop/eVar without needing development....

In Processing rules you could do something like this:

It will use up an additional prop, but this would be set in your calls as they come in (it will only work from implementation and on - it's not a backwards looking compatibility like classifications)

You may want to add some conditions onto this... so that this checks that you have the two props/eVars you are trying to concatenate exist, or maybe add some rules if only one of them is set, etc... 

[MoriE2]

Would you please elaborate on this: 

it will only work from implementation and on - it's not a backwards looking compatibility like classifications.

Does it mean it is not applicable to the previous data? but if it is at development level it can be applied across all data? 

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Like having your developers add a new tag, it will only have data from the time it's implemented. Basically Adobe has this flow of data:

1. Data Collection
2. Processing Rules
3. VISTA Rules
4. Marketing Channel Processing Rules

What your developers set on the site and in Adobe Launch is part of "Data Collection"... when that data is sent to Adobe, the next step before the data is available in your reports is "Processing Rules"

You modify and set values in Processing Rules (Be careful, incorrectly made rules can cause issues with your data that you will never get back - Always test the rules in a dev environment first).

The rule I am suggesting will manipulate the new "Prop1" in my screenshot (I probably should have made it a later number given this will be your new prop). Basically, as the data comes to Adobe, this rule will take the value from Prop2 and the value from Prop3 and concatenate them with " : ".

Once added, it will look like any other developer set prop, it's just set a little later in the process. (note, if you are doing front end testing, you will see prop2 and prop3, but you won't see prop1 UNLESS you are using the debugger feature to see "processed data")

When I mention that it won't be backwards compatible.. this is in comparison to using something like Classification Rules. If you are familiar with classifications, you know that you can take a value such as "value 1 : value 2" and split it into classifications first part = "value 1" and second part = "value 2", and when you create this classification you can process data up to 6 months in the past....  

But Classifications only works within a single dimension and makes basically "sub dimension items". There is no classification equivalent of concatenation...

As @yuhuisg mentioned, you could do this with Excel... but that may not suite your needs; and since you are trying to avoid getting your developers involved.. this is another option that you can do right in your suite.....