Is there a way to unhide a hidden column in a Spotfire data table

[peter u]

Is there a way to unhide a hidden column in a data table

If you try to delete a column which is a precedent for a calculated column, Spotfire gives you a warning and asks if you really want to delete it (calculated column will become invalid) or Hide it.

If you hide the column, it disappears from the Available columns list but still is able to be used in Expressions, and you can't name a new column the same thing because it clearly still exists. However, is there a way to un-hide this column I can't find any Tibco documentation on the Hide column feature, and while I can reference this column via IronPython, there doesn't appear to be a column property for "visible/hidden" in the DataColumnProperties list.

https://docs.tibco.com/pub/doc_remote/spotfire/7.0.1/doc/api/html/Proper...

Currently working with Spotfire 7.9.1

Thanks in advance,

Peter

[Shuting Fu]

It is not possible to un-hide the hidden column directly, but there is a workaround.

Say you have a column , and you calculated a new column [C] by column . Now go ahead and delete

[peter u]

Thanks for your reply Shuting Fu.

 

 

 

This seems very strange that an action like this cannot be undone especially since there’s no warning when doing it that it’s not reversible.

 

 

 

Your work around applies only to imported columns, correct  And, correct me if I’m wrong, but it will cause Spotfire to process the column twice on a data refresh: once on import (B) and a second time on the transform/replace (B1), is that right  This could add in some unnecessary load time if you have an extremely large table or many “unhidden” columns.  This could be something to consider when deciding to leave it as a hidden column or do the transform/replace.

 

 

 

For my specific case, the columns I wanted to unhide were calculated columns so I was able to write an IronPython script to delete then recreate all calculated columns in the dxp.  This seems to have done the trick but I’ll need to do further testing to confirm.

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

Peter

[Jordan Hidajat]

I experienced the same thing, that I could not unhide the hidden column. Then I tried to experiment with a few buttons. I'm not sure if it is the solution, but you can right click at the table and choose properties (or you can choose the visualisation property option at the toolbar). After that, a box will appear with several options on the left, choose columns, and add the column in 'available column' to 'selected column'.

[peter u]

Thanks, but my question is referring to the actual data table, not a table visualization.  It is baffling that Spotfire lets you hide a column with no way to unhide it.

[Julie Sebby]

Peter, totally agree that behavior is bonkers.  Fortunately, I read this string when I was still able to use the undo function. 

[Anders Gavare]

It should be possible to set the Visible property to true on a DataColumn since 7.6.0.

https://docs.tibco.com/pub/doc_remote/sfire_dev/area/doc/api/TIB_sfire-analyst_api/html/P_Spotfire_Dxp_Data_DataColumn_Visible.htm

You write that you are running Spotfire 7.9.1, but posted a link to old API documentation (7.0.1) where there was no Visible property on DataColumn, that's probably why you couldn't find it.

Example using IronPython:

dataTable.Columns["MyColumn"].Visible = TrueThis should make the column unhidden again.