When using wildcards in Alteryx, what is the best practice to ensure data accuracy?

When utilizing wildcards in Alteryx, minimizing the use of wildcard characters is considered best practice for ensuring data accuracy. This approach helps reduce the risk of matching unintended records or data entries that do not fit the intended criteria. Wildcard characters, such as asterisks (*) or question marks (?), can broaden the scope of matches, which might lead to retrieving extraneous data or missing specific, relevant entries if overly used.

By limiting the application of wildcards, users can create more precise queries that target exact matches where necessary, leading to cleaner, more accurate datasets. This precision is particularly important in data preparation and analysis, where the integrity of the dataset significantly impacts the validity of insights drawn from it. While there are other practices that also contribute to data accuracy, such as verifying file integrity and using descriptive field names, those actions do not directly address the potential pitfalls of wide-ranging wildcard use.