Random sample

The Random Sample operation generates a data-set containing a random sub-set of rows from the input data. This can be useful when you are working with very large data-sets, allowing you to work with a smaller sample of data while preparing and testing additional operations that need to be applied to the data. 

Options 

• Records. The Records field allows you to select the number of records in the sample. The records are chosen at random, so each time you execute the operation you will obtain a different sample.

Example 

The Random sample operation can be useful when you are working with very large data-sets. You can use the Random sample operation to generate a small sample of the data.This is useful because some operations can take a long time to execute on large data-sets. By working with a smaller data-set you can create, configure and test additional operations that you want to apply to the data much more quickly.

In this example we are working with a fairly large data-set containing approximately 1,000,000 records. We want to use a combination of the Random sample operation and the Input switch operation to switch the data between a small sample of 1,000 records and the full data-set without having to reconnect our workflow. A configuration that allows us to do this is shown below.

 

More on Operations