Recursive data format

Ask a question
#1

Do you have any tips for handling recursive data in parabola?
Take the example below. The first table is a list of all of my items.

  • Apple pie is a top level item
  • Apple pie is made of Pie Crust & Apple Filling
  • Pie Crust is made of Flour, Butter, and Sugar
  • Butter is made of Cream and Salt

In this example I have a separate table of orders for 3 items. I want to be able to create a line for each of the 3 items ordered and their ingredients (the table at the bottom). If I always knew how many layers deep each line would be (Apple pie was 4 layers deep), I could manipulate the data with multiple flows to get there. However as my items get more complex, the layers involved will increase. I would like to set up a flow that is sure to capture all layers of the data. Do you have any ideas for handling this?

image
image1257×640 18.3 KB

#2

Hey @Annika_Cederblad,

Good question! Give us a moment to work on this and implement a solution from our end. We’ll be sure to follow up with any advice and recommendations to get you towards your desired final format shortly.

We appreciate your patience :slight_smile:

#3

Hey Annika,

After taking some time to work with this, there isn’t a graceful way to dynamically handle recursive data in Parabola.

Will you know how many layers you need when running this flow, or do you expect them to constantly fluctuate? If there is a set depth to the level of your actual data, we should be able to come up with a manual solution.

#4

Hi Daniel,

I appreciate you taking the time to dig into this. I expect constant fluctuation, and could only guess at the max. However if there was a good way to set up the flow to capture anywhere from 1-5 “layers”, I think that would cover 95% of use cases.

#5

Hey Annika,

Thanks for passing that along! This has got us stumped. :upside_down_face:

We’re working on configuring this on our end, but it’s requiring a ton of steps to target and reformat all of the data. Even still, we can’t find a good way to get near your desired structure. It’s safe to Parabola can’t support this use-case.

Appreciate your patience as we looked into this from our end. Wish we could have had a better outcome to follow up with.

#6

Hi Daniel,

Does this limitation apply to a setup with potentially infinite levels? Or do you mean that even setting up for 5 levels will not work?

#7

Hey Annika,

Happy to clarify. We wanted to try a manual workaround to accommodate 5 levels, but we still weren’t able to structure the data in a usable format. Didn’t mean to cause any false hope!

Since Parabola can’t support this, I recommend posting this in #feature-requests. That way, other users can chime in if they think this feature would be helpful.