Hi,
is guess the stamp transform is missing the ability to set the column name.
I want to do some date transformations like give me the first and last day of next month from now. I think I will need some stamp fields to do this. I would later reference those fields as variables to build the calculations/replaces, so different names from “stamp” would be pretty helpful 
Best,
Jochen
I will make a note. But it only saves you a Rename Cols transform, so not urgent. ;0)
that’s right…
The naming of newly created columns is a bit unconsistent… sometimes you have a field with a autogenerated name you can edit, sometimes you have to tick a box first and sometimes you have to use a Rename Cols transform…
I like the the first way best: have a form field ready with an auto generated name…
Sometimes the column name is generated dynamically from the options chosen (such as Calculate). Sometimes it is fixed (such as Stamp). We use different approaches in each case.
I know. I can understand your point. Nevertheless, from a user point of view, I would like a common way to deal with column names.
And another point to your earlier reply. Please see one of my transforms… every saved transform step reall, really helps
So far, we didn’t come up with a workable unified way to handle static and dynamic column names, that fits in with the rest of the system.
Understood. We are hoping to add grouping boxes at some point, to make large numbers of transforms a bit easier to handle.
Now you are just showing off (and it’s working)
Are there any other transforms, apart from Stamp, that you commonly have to do a Rename Cols transform after?
After join, but that’s different… after copy cols…
Copy Cols is tricky, because it can create multiple copies of multiple columns. It could perhaps have an option to disambiguate them though. E.g. make 2 copies each of X and Y columns to go from columns:
|X|Y|
To columns:
|X|Y|X-2|X-3|Y-2|Y-3|
Instead of:
|X|Y|X|X|Y|Y|
Not sure how useful that would be.
Look at how different If vs Lookup and Calculate handle naming new cols. What’s the reason for that? And then there is Stamp, which needs a Rename.
Why can’t every transform, that creates a new col name it like if in the most easiest way? The content of the name could be filled automatically, until the user enters his title. And you could add a checkbox to go back to auto-naming, as long as the user does not enter anything in the name-field again…
Why should something like that not work out for every transform?
And why do you think the naming should work differently for If and Stamp?
Nothing complicated… just converting files from one format to another, merging some info from other files and validating stuff…
But if you need to create helper cols to achieve something, just to delete them later to reach the desired file format… than every column count… 
You are right. That’s a problem… Never used that, though…
Calculate and Lookup default to creating the new column name dynamically. E.g. "A+B’ if you are using Calculate to add column ‘A’ to column ‘B’.
If doesn’t do this, because the dynamic name would probably be too long to be useful. So it defaults to the static name ‘If’.
I’m not convinced that would be better than what we have.
I don’t. We just didn’t get around to making that change yet.
