Column && Row Delimiters To Read Flat Files Into SQL Table
May 6, 2008
Hi,
I have a package that reads a fixed width flat file data into a single CHAR column in an sql server 2005 table.
In the "Columns" tab of the Flat File Connection Manager, I set the RowDelimiter value to {LF} and nothing for the ColumnDelimiter (since I read the entire row from the flat file into a single column in my sql table).
However, in the "Advanced" tab, the ColumnDelimiter Misc property shows {LF}. This was working fine for me.
The problem I was facing was with some files which were recently identified to have rows containing a special character (probably ASCII ZERO) in the middle of the row. So, now if the record was having 400 characters and the 200 th character had this special character, the package was writing the first 200 characters into the sql table and ignoring the rest of the characters.
I am sure that the special character was ASCII ZERO - I wrote a script to read each character in the line and find the ascii code for it.
Has anyone faced this problem ever. If so, pls let me know your solution or any ideas that can help sort this problem. Your help would be much appreciated.
I have the misfortune of converting a DTS package to SSIS that loads a flat file that has a text fields that can contain embedded text delimiters ("), column delimiters (,) and even new lines (CR+LF i.e.,hex 0D 0A) in it. A sample line from the file is posted here, remember this is just one line though it shows as three lines, since the third field has embedded new line in it:
4,"Sam","EVP; MARKETING PRODUCT MANAGER ""Level I"", Internet Sales / HELP 8005551212",100
If you open in excel it handles it perfectly showing four fields, as below, and this is what I want ( I cannot get it aligned right in the posting, just save the above line in *.csv and open to see what it should be):
4 Sam "EVP; MARKETING PRODUCT MANAGER ""Level I"", 100 Internet Sales / HELP 8005551212"
Now, SSIS errors on the embedded text delimiters and breaks into two or three lines based on which option I chose. I have tried few options based on postings in the forum: a). Using undouble and undoubleout: Does not work when there are embedded column delimiters (,) in the text field b). Modified undouble script posted by lvovg at http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1718225&SiteID=1. Handles the embedded column delimiters (,) perfectly, but the embedded new lines (CR+LF i.e.,hex 0D 0A) are breaking it. Since, I am using the ragged right format to read from the file then use transform script on the line by lvovg, the line is already broken by the ragged right format at the embedded new lines, hence does not work.
Right now I am stuck. Can someone please help (anyone from MS) ? I am already baffled at the amount of coding required to convert a very basic ( and working ) flat file load DTS package to SSIS. I am willing to persist bit longer to convert this to SSIS, before I give up and stick with DTS and wait for a fix / workaround.
I need to import multiple flat files with different formats into different tables of the sql server database and not able to figure out the best way out in ssis to do so...
What are the possible methods in ssis to do so and if possible the process which can be dynamic as file names or columns might change in future.
I have a flatfile which is of the following format. I want to import this data into the sql server 2005 database. The alphabets at the start of each line represents the type of record. The data are position specific.
for ex in Record A, the following are the values that are based on column length 1 - (col length is 1) 249 (col length is 3) 20AUG (col length is 5) etc.. P SEA D 1 110000
I have a flat file that has fields delimited by tilde {~} and rows delimited by {CR}{LF}. The problem is, my source is spitting out the {NULL} (&H00) at the end of the row.
The data displays correctly in the pre-viewer (with a non-print symbol at the end of the last field), but gives an error when I try to run the package.
Example:
€œdata€?~€?data€?~€?data€?{NULL}{CR}{LF}
I can process the row in c# using:
€œ €?
as the row delimiter. What is the equivalent notation for SSIS?
We're having issues exporting a set of data from SQL to a fixed width flat text file by just doing a right click on the DB, then choosing Tasks > Export Data. You can not specify a row delimiter when you choose a Fixed Width format. The only way around this that we've found is to specificy char(13) and char(10) at the end of the SQL select statement. Without row delimiters you end up with 1 giant record rather than 20,000 regular sized records. Is there any other way around this that we're missing?
Using Ragged Right is not an option either since the record lengths will be inconsistent if the last field doesn't contain a consistent length to the data.
There is a small problem encountered while creating a package in sql server 2005. Actually i am using a flat file which has 820 rows and 2 columns which are seperated by line feed(for ROW) and tab(for COLUMN).after importing i found that ther are only 800 rows imported into the table. Ather verifying the input file i found out that there are some null values in the second column so there is no line feed for those values. Can anyone please help me how to give multiple delimiters for the same input flat file.
Public Class ScriptMain Inherits UserComponent Dim smpid As String Dim Prdt As String Dim rcnt As Int64
[code]...
Using the Vb script above I am expecting to read the first row from a flat file source and transferring the data into two variable using script component.
I get the following errors one after the other:"The collection of variables locked for read and write access is not available outside of PostExecute." "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
I have a Data-Flow task embedded in a Sequence Container (does not fail component on error) on the Control Flow panel of the SSIS designer. This data flow task contains a connection to a Flat File Source -> A Data Transformation -> Into an OLE Db Destination.
The problem is that the Flat File isn't always delimited properly -> the client cannot be relied on to do this.
My question is when the delimiters are messed up, how can I capture the offending error row(s) from the Flat File Source?
What I've tried: 1) Set every column in the source flat file on error to: Redirect Row 2) Added a Script Transformation to pull the description and the record id out of the offending row 3) Added an Error file flat file destination to the end of the flow.
The package always fails on the Flat File Source and never Redirects the offending Row to the error output - I never see my onError Script Transformation go Green, Red, or Yellow - SSIS doesn't let it get there.
I'm really new to SSIS so sorry if this is a super basic question.
Here is the Error Text:
[Source - InventTable_csv [1]] Error: The column delimiter for column "RECID" was not found. [Source - InventTable_csv [1]] Error: An error occurred while processing file "C:------InventTable.csv" on data row 15228. [DTS.Pipeline] Error: The PrimeOutput method on component "Source - InventTable_csv" (1) returned error code 0xC0202092. The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing. [DTS.Pipeline] Error: Thread "SourceThread0" has exited with error code 0xC0047038.
I do have the MaxErrorCount set to 1 on the Data Flow Task but still think I should see my script task execute and a log entry be generated.
i am sure this question must have been anwsered some where, but after a lot of searching i still have not find the anwser.
i have flat files without column headers (267 columns in total). since i have the file's description i have created a table to house these extracts with the columns in the same order as in the flat files. additionally, i have an excel containing a list of the column names their data types and length as well as their position on the flat files. in the old, DTS would map the columns without headers to those columns in the destination table using their order, in which case it works like a breeze for me. but i can not find a way of doing that in SSIS.
i would very much appreciate someone's assistance on this one since i am sure that there must be a better way than manually (and tediously & error prone) to map all those columns.
Sorry if this question had already been answered previously. I was unable search the forum on this topic. How will I merge these and then configure the first row as Column names (As this helps to map to the destination column names automatically)
How do I automate importing "All Text Flat Files" into a SQL 7 table. The key is that there is no validation neccessary for the data and I do not want to manually import the data. I just to delimited the data and import it using either a script or a schedular of some type that can do it for me. Some Please Help
I have two database files, one .mdf and one .ndf. The creator of these files has marked them readonly. I want to "attach" these files to a new database, but cannot do so because they are read-only. I get this message:
Server: Msg 3415, Level 16, State 2, Line 1 Database 'TestSprintLD2' is read-only or has read-only files and must be made writable before it can be upgraded.
What command(s) are needed to make these files read_write?
I hope this is easy stuff for you.. First of all i searched the forum but didnt exactly find what iam searching for:
I have a File folder which contains 1..n Files of the same type. The files contain a DateValue at the beginning of each row. I now want to read the first Record of the file - extract the datevalue and search in my Importtable if there are any records with that Date. If there are allready Records with this date i know i allready imported that file and skip it in my For each File Container. If no records where found I want to copy them from the file to the table.
So I have a flatfile source and thoght I just make an oledb command task afterwards which looks like "Select count(*) from Import where Processdate = ?. and then a conditional split if the count == 0 or not... but i have problems getting the Count value out auf the OLD DB Command Task because everytime I try to add an outputcolumn i get the message: "An Output cannot be added to the output collection" and since there is no possibility to map an expression to the result...
I tried to workaround the problem using a lookup task.. but that seems to be the wrong way.
How do i import a Varying Column Width Flat file into a Table using SSIS?
I have a flat file that has 4 columns with varying width Like I should read the file as Col 1 - (1 to 10 Characters) Col 2 - (12 to 21 Characters) Col 3 - (22 to 35 Characters) Col 4 - (36 to 38 Characters) At the end of the record is a "LF"
I think "Fixed Width" Columns allow me to define a standard column length for all the columns.. Right?
I have a simple enough task to complete that I can€™t seem to find the answer to.
The task is this €“
Select table x from the database and write it to a flat file complete with that tables column headings.
Now I€™ve managed to set up an ole db datasource and selected the table and I€™ve also linked it to the flat file output. So now I can generate a flat file from the database. However no column headings appear in the flat file.
I can€™t seem to find anywhere (like a checkbox) that will also output the column headings to the flat file.
Now I can add in Headings manually in the properties of the Flat File Destination object but the columns that appear in the flat file don€™t appear to be in the order that I requested them in the SQL.
So the question is how do I automatically have the column headings appear for flat file output (ideally without me having to manually add them in).
If it can€™t be done and I have to use a vb.net script instead then would anyone have an example script of how to do it?
Thanks in advance for anyone who manages to answer this.
Can we bulk insert only the desired column from a flat file to a table?
I am using SSIS to bulk insert from a file with more than 200 columns. I am trying to find a way I can bulk insert them to multiples table through SSIS.
The one way I can think is pre map the columns from the file to the destination tables. Build numerous Bulk Insert tasks to achieve that. But not sure if SSIS will let me do that.
Is there a way of uploading column definitions from the Flat File Connection Manager into a SQL Server table definition. Since I have over a dozen data sources to process each with around 200 columns and of course like many BI techies I have little immediate influence over the structure of these flat files. I just know that these data sources are business critical.
Judging by looking at similar threads I can't be the only one who would greatly benefit from being able to upload column definitions from the Flat File Connection Manager into a SQL Server table definition as opposed to doing this manually.
After the staging_temp data gets inserted into main table.my probelm is to handle such a file where number of columns are more than the actual table.
If you see the sample rows there are 4 column separated by "¯".but actual I am having only 3 columns in my main table.so how can I get only first 3 column from the satging_temp table.
Hi, I want to read only the first row in flatfile. I do not see this option on "Flatfile connection manager editor" setting wizard. Any work around for this?
I'm relatively new to SSIS and I've been tinkering with the XML and Flat File sources.
I noticed that in the XML source it is possible to tell SSIS to read the XML data from a variable. I didn't see a similar option for the Flat File source.
Does anyone know if it is possible to read flat file data from a variable when using the Flat File source?
I'm reading a Flat File. The 1ste record containts special Info that is needed for first preparing the database on a buld insert of the remaining lines.
How could i realize this, just read 1 line, store some of that data into variables, execute some proc's and then read the rest of the file ?
use mysql1 declare @bp xml select @bp=xml ;WITH XMLNAMESPACES('http://schemas.openehr.org/v1' as bp,'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' as xsi,'OBSERVATION' as type) select * from ( select m.c.value('(./bp:data/bp:items[1]/bp:value[1]/bp:magnitude)[1]','int') as systolisch from BloodpressureMitSchema cross apply @bp.nodes('/bp:content/bp:data/bp:events') as m(c))m
But with this "cross apply" I can only query all the values in one xml and repeat them. Is there something wrong at "declear"
I am facing issue with the auto fit width. When i am creating a report which includes table. The table column length should get adjusted to the text size displayed in it instead of displaying the text in 2 lines. But i dont find any way to set that option. Could anyone let me know how to set the column length as per the text displayed in the column in table.
I have a few flat files that I need to read a date from. The date will always be on Line No 4 and will be in YYYYMMDD string format in chars 2-9 of line 4
Here's what I have so far to convert the string YYYYMMDD into date format... I don't know enough VB to be able to just hit Line 4... I am sure it's simple so could someone pelase put me out of my googling misery
Code Snippet
Public Sub Main()
'
Dim oStream As New IO.StreamReader("Z:TreasuryFilesdeals.dat")
Dim strReadLine As String, filedate As Date
'??? how to just read a date from the fourth line of the file ??
'strReadLine = oStream.ReadLine()
strReadLine = "A20050331" 'sample string variable
'convert the fourth line of the flat file to a date format
I have a situation where a tab limited text file is used to populate a sql server table.
The tab limited text file comes from a third party vendor. There are fixed number of columns we need to export to the sql server table. However the third party may add colums in the text file. Whenenver the text file has an added column (which we dont need to import) the build fails since the flat file connection manager does not create the metadata for it again. The problem goes away where I press the button "Reset Columns" since it builds the metadata then. Since we need to build the tables everyday we cannot automate it using SSIS because the metadata does not change automatically. Is there a way out in SSIS?
I am transferring data from an OLEDB source to a Flat File Destination and I want the column width for all of the output columns to 30 (max width amongst the columns selected), but that is not refected in the Fixed Width Flat File that got created. The outputcolumnwidth seems to be the same as the inputcolumnwidth. Is there any other setting that I am possibly missing or is this a possible defect?
Some records got deleted from our DB. We don't have any triggers to log this delete transaction. Is there anyway to find out from log files or someother places to find out about this deletion. Is this information stored in transaction log. We do complete backup every night. So I think the transaction log will be truncated after the complete backup right? Please advise on this.
I saw some .trc files will be created by SQL Server Express I would like to view them (I suppose they are 'trace files') in order to find info about problems I encounter.
Somewhere I read 'SQL Server Profiler' should be used to read them but (to me) it seems that's not being installed using the downloads I found (SQLEXPR_ADV.exe and SQLEXPR_TOOLKIT.exe) so I wonder how to get it or how to view them differently
