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Tableau | Data prep

Timestamp Outputs in Tableau Prep | New in Tableau 2023.2

Tableau Prep 2023.2 can now stamp the run date straight onto your output file names, no messy date column required.

Tim Ngwena •21 June 2023 •3 min read •4 min watch •2.6K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2023.2 Tableau Prep Builder tutorial Jan-2020

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Tableau Prep 2023.2 adds system parameters so you can append the run date or run time to output file names without needing a date column in your data
Previously you had to add a date dimension to your dataset and parameterise from that, which was messy; this removes that requirement
The feature is useful for version control of outputs and for capturing daily snapshots you later combine in another flow
You can choose different date and time formats, including granularity down to the second via run time, and add separators like hyphens
Deleting the brackets around the parameter in the name field removes the parameter, so leave them intact

0:00Hey, Sam here. Right now I'm looking at a

0:02parameter in the output name that allows me

0:04to add

0:05the date dynamically to the output file.

0:07When we run Tableau prep, this is a new

0:10feature in Tableau

0:1023.2. Let me show you how it works. Let's

0:13get stuck in. So the origin of this feature

0:17makes a ton of

0:18sense. If you're running a flow and you

0:20want to output a file and you don't want to

0:22overwrite the

0:23existing files in a location, something you

0:25might do is you might add the date or time

0:27that you run

0:28the flow. So you have some sort of version

0:30control using the time of the flow to be

0:33able to go back

0:34in time and look at it. The other use case

0:35is actually you might be running a flow

0:37that's

0:38pulling data on a daily basis. And so every

0:40time the flow runs, it's essentially

0:42capturing a

0:42snapshot of sorts. And what you then want

0:45to do is in another flow, bring all of

0:46those files together.

0:48And you actually want to use that date and

0:50time in your data set to make things work.

0:52And so actually,

0:53this idea came from the Tableau community

0:55five years ago, Owen Price posted this

0:57option to

0:58parameterize the output file names. And

1:00actually Tableau did bring out the ability

1:02to add parameterize

1:04outputs to files, you can use dimensions in

1:06the data. And so what people were doing is

1:08they were

1:08adding a date column in their data and then

1:11using that date in the parameters kind of

1:13messy. What

1:14Tableau have done now is they've just gone

1:16ahead and not made it a requirement to have

1:18those

1:18parameters in your data set. You can see

1:20here if I click on my flow, and I actually

1:22go down to the

1:23parameters, you can see I have no parameter

1:25created, I haven't got that set up. But if

1:28I

1:28click on the output, and I go down here to

1:30the left hand side where it says name, you

1:32'll see there is

1:33a parameter and there's a system parameter.

1:35This is kind of nice, because this suggests

1:37that you

1:38might be able to fit other bits of

1:39information about your system into this

1:41drop down. So I'm

1:43really keen to see what else can be added

1:44here. But you can see here you get the run

1:46date, and you

1:47can choose a different formats of different

1:49setups, and also the runtime if you need

1:51more granular

1:52control down to the second as well. So that

1:54's a really, really nice touch. If we go

1:56ahead and

1:56select run date, I'm just going to choose

1:58Oh, actually, let's choose the date because

2:01I like

2:01my dates sort of as a whole number, I just

2:03want to choose year, month, day, keep it

2:05nice and standard.

2:06And so you can see here, and the

2:08essentially the output, I can put a hyphen

2:10there just to make it

2:11sort of stand out a little bit. So now when

2:13I run this, this is going to save this to

2:16this location,

2:16I can actually go ahead and change this,

2:18let's put this on my, let's put this on my

2:21desktop.

2:22Let's do that there hits accept. And now

2:24that we've done that, we're pretty much

2:26ready to go

2:26hit run flow. And off it will go, you can

2:29see that the apple is written here. And if

2:31I bring my

2:32desktop up, let's go ahead and bring the

2:34files, you can see that there's the file,

2:36it's got here,

2:37month, day, day, hyper. Now that's not that

2:40's not what I wanted. I actually wanted it

2:42to write the

2:43date. So what's going on here? What has

2:45gone on here? Let's just try this again. I

2:47've got a bug

2:48here. Let's go ahead hit run date. Let's go

2:51to date and let's go year, month, day, we

2:55'll hit run

2:56flow. I think what I might have done is I

2:58might have removed those brackets. And that

3:00might have

3:01deleted the parameter in essence. And so

3:03that didn't work. So don't do what I just

3:05did. You can

3:06see that I do these videos literally out of

3:08the box. I don't do practice runs. I have a

3:11look at

3:11the documentation and we record the video

3:13straightaway. So here we go 230618. And

3:16this is

3:16the previous one where I obviously had the

3:18faux pas. But it's a really nice touch.

3:20Nice simple

3:20feature. Nice and easy. That's it for this

3:23video. Be sure to check out the other

3:25videos on 23.2 that

3:26I've already got going in the playlist that

3:28you're watching this video in. And also let

3:30me know what

3:31you think of this feature in the comments.

3:33We're really close to 50,000 subscribers. I

3:35'd love your

3:36help. So if you know someone who's not

3:37subscribed or you're not subscribed, just

3:39hit the subscribe

3:40button and get on with your life. I would

3:42really appreciate it. I really want to get

3:44to the number

3:44super soon. Thanks for watching and I'll

3:47catch you in the next one.

3:49Bye.

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3:59[ Silence ]

Rollup

Tableau Prep 2023.2 lets you stamp the run date or run time directly onto an output file name using a built-in system parameter, so you no longer need a date column in your data just to version your outputs.

Previously, if you wanted an output file name to include the date it was run, you had to add a date field to your dataset and parameterise from that. This new system parameter removes that requirement entirely.

The Breakdown

Know the two use cases 0:20

You'd want a dynamic date or time in an output name either for simple version control, so you don't overwrite previous runs, or for daily snapshotting, where each run's file is later combined with others in a separate flow using that date.
How this improves on the old method 1:01

Tableau previously supported parameterising output names from fields in your dataset, so people added a date dimension purely to feed the file name, which was messy. The system parameter now offers the run date/time without needing that field in your data at all.
Find the system parameter on the output step 1:21

Click your output node, go to the name field, and you'll see a parameter dropdown that includes a system parameter option, separate from any parameters you've built yourself in the flow.
Choose run date or run time 1:42

Run date gives you the day the flow ran; run time goes down to the second for more granular control. Pick whichever matches how often you need to distinguish output files.
Pick a format and add separators 2:02

You can select the date format you prefer, for example year-month-day as a plain number, and add characters like a hyphen in the name field to make the date stand out visually in the file name.
Don't delete the brackets around the parameter 2:41

Tim hits a bug where editing the name field removes the brackets around the parameter, which deletes the parameter itself and breaks the output. Keep the brackets intact when editing the surrounding text in the name field.

Worth Knowing

Editing the name field to add separators can accidentally delete the brackets around the parameter, which removes it — leave the brackets in place.
The system parameter dropdown suggests other system information might be addable here in future, though only run date and run time were available at this point.

Use It When

Reach for this whenever an output needs to avoid overwriting previous runs, or when you're capturing daily snapshots that get stitched together later in another flow.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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