Quick update: I was able to solve my issue!

To anyone that may be trying to apply this method, make sure your data is formatted as a string in your excel dataset (I believe that is what the "\s" represents in Paul's field code). So look out for any green triangles in your dataset that may say "convert to number" or something like that when clicked on.

After repeating this method for a number of different scenarios I also found that manually retyping the column names in my excel datasets helped even in the absence of typos.

Special thanks again to Paul and merry christmas!