Column Expressions Node - Still in Knime Labs?

[sjmartin]

Hi all,

I noticed that the Column Expressions node is listed under Knime Labs. Is this tool production ready or is it still in beta mode (the Hub doesn’t mention this being a Labs node)? I want to use the functionality but have concerns if its not fully complete.

Thanks all!

sjm.

[Mark_Ortmann]

@sjmartin,

indeed it is still in labs as some functionality is still missing and it has some performance issues. We hope that we’ll find time to address those issue with 4.3.

At this point in time I can not guarantee that the missing functionality will be backwards compatible, I.e., we don’t know whether or not we’ll have to deprecate this node. However, as always we’re trying our best to omit deprecation.

Sorry for this potentially not really satisfying answer.

Best
Mark

[ipazin]

Hi @sjmartin,

can you share what functionality you want to use from Column Expressions node? Maybe you can get some suggestions from community what nodes to use if you decide not to go with Column Expressions…

Additionally haven’t noticed users backing down from it cause it is still in Labs…

Br,
Ivan

[AnotherFraudUser]

Hi @sjmartin,

I would say the node functionallity is complete in a sense that it is working (but might get future improvements which might be done as a “new” column expression node)
However like @ipazin said I would not take that as a reason to not use it now… at least I never had any problems using lab nodes until now - in the worst case the node gets deprecared (and look a bit ugly) but will still work in your old worklows

[sjmartin]

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses.

@ipazin I’m keen to build multi-field formulae that can be run over multiple fields removing the necessity to build looping logic.

Happy to wait while this gets finalised and is production ready, looking forward to the next release.

Thanks,

sjm.

[ipazin]

Hi @sjmartin,

in that case Math Formula (Multi Column) might help.

Br,
Ivan

[sjmartin]

Great, @ipazin thanks for this, very useful.

I don’t suppose the String Manipulation tool can also be deployed across multiple string fields too or is this where Column Expressions is deployed?

Thanks!

[ipazin]

Hi @sjmartin,

yes and no. Column Expressions is handy and necessary in case of different expressions for multiple columns if you don’t want to use more than one node. String Manipulation on multiple columns (where same expression is applied to every column) is planned for next release.

Br,
Ivan

[sjmartin]

Great, @ipazin thanks for confirming!