Geospatial Steps
Workflow steps that read, build, transform, and match geometry. Together with the geometry expressions they cover the whole Alteryx spatial toolset — see the Alteryx conversion matrix for the tool-by-tool mapping.
Geometry Is WKT
Section titled “Geometry Is WKT”Every spatial step reads and writes geometry as WKT (well-known text) in an ordinary text column. There is no special geometry type to declare and no conversion between steps: a geometry column produced by Spatial File Import is directly usable by Spatial Buffer, Spatial Match, or a SQL expression, in any order.
Two Execution Routes
Section titled “Two Execution Routes”Each step runs by the simplest route that gives the right answer.
| Route | What runs there | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SQL — in the database | Find Nearest, Match, plus the geometry expressions | Predicate joins and column expressions scale with the table; no rows leave the warehouse |
| Workflow engine — Shapely and GDAL | Everything that reshapes geometry | Buffering, smoothing, and dissolving are not expressible in database SQL |
You do not choose the route; each step type has one. The distinction matters when you are sizing a job: SQL-route steps scale with the warehouse, engine-route steps scale with the workflow pod.
Load Geometry
Section titled “Load Geometry”- Spatial File Import — read a MapInfo
.TAB, ESRI.shp,.kml, or.geojsonfile and its sidecars - Geometry in SQL — build points from longitude/latitude columns
Match and Measure
Section titled “Match and Measure”- Spatial Find Nearest — the N closest rows of one table to each row of another, with distance
- Spatial Match — pair rows whose geometry intersects, is within, or contains
- Spatial Match (Intersect / Unmatched) — the same match, emitting the overlap geometry or the rows that did not match
- Spatial Info — area, length, centroid, and bounding rectangle, measured geodesically
Reshape Geometry
Section titled “Reshape Geometry”- Spatial Buffer — grow each geometry by a fixed distance
- Spatial Trade Area — concentric buffers sized in real-world units
- Spatial Generalize — simplify to a tolerance
- Spatial Smooth — smooth over a number of passes
- Spatial Process — intersect, union, or cut two geometry columns
Build and Break Apart
Section titled “Build and Break Apart”- Spatial Poly-Build — build a polygon or convex hull per group of points
- Spatial Poly-Split — one row per vertex, component polygon, or hole
- Spatial Combine — dissolve each group’s geometries into one
- Spatial Make Grid — tile an extent into square cells
Expression Reference
Section titled “Expression Reference”- Geometry Functions (Lakehouse v1) — the
ST_*family - Geography Functions (Lakehouse v1) — H3 hexagonal indexing and geohashes
- Spatial Functions (Lakehouse v2)
Related
Section titled “Related”- Geospatial Analytics — a worked path from source file to published map
- Migrate Spatial Alteryx Workflows
- Report Map — render geometry into a report
- Packaged macro steps — Heat Map and Pie Wedge Trade Area