FME AttributeTransposer

Custom transformer for FME® that transposes attributes so that the value of a selected Column Attribute is turned into a new attribute. In other words, this a simple version of the AttributePivoter, that flips the “rows” and “columns” of a feature attribute table.

Examples

The table below shows the original input features and their attributes.
When we set “Attribute2” as the Column Attribute and the Row Attributes to “Attribute4”, “Attribute3” and “Attribute1” (in that order), we would end up with the 3 features, as shown in the second table.

The third table above shows what happens, when we set “Attribute3” as the Column Attribute and the Row Attributes to “Attribute1”, “Attribute2”, “Attribute4” and “Attribute5” (in that order). Notice that we have 4 features now and that the value “test” existed twice, which resulted in a “test” attribute and a “test(1)” attribute. The Column Attribute also contains 2 empty values, that have been turned into “Untitled” and “Untitled(1)” respectively. This is intended behaviour: attributes cannot be overwritten or not written at all because their name is null, empty or missing.

Notes

• The AttributeTransposer creates attributes for every feature that passes through it. Therefore, please use this transformer with great care.
• The transformer will not preserve geometry. It only works on tabular data.
• New attributes are created dynamically and should be exposed using an AttributeExposer, for example.
• All original attributes will still be exposed on the output feature, but will not have a value, except for the Columns Attribute. This attribute will store all the row attributes (i.e. “row headers”) in the order that the user has selected.
• Also available on FME Hub for convenient installation.
• This transformer has been tested on Python 2.7 and 3.4.
• If you notice a bug or desire a new feature, please SanderSchaminee@users.noreply.github.com">contact me or make a pull request!
• Released under GNU General Public License v3.0.
• The test workspace is used for testing and provides some examples.

Transformer Parameters

Columns Attribute

Specify the attribute for which all feature values should be turned into new attributes (i.e. columns). The order in which features arrive, determines the order in which new attributes/columns are created, but since these attributes are not sequenced, this can’t be guaranteed.

Row Attribute(s)

Select at least 1 attribute whose values will be used in a “row feature”, effectively forming the attribute values of the Columns Attribute set above. This means that the order in which you specify the Row Attribute(s), determines the feature output order.