Fixed Length Text File Import
Dec 5, 2007
Hi,
I am trying to import a text file that has fixed length fields.
It also has column headers repeated in the file.
The text file is delimited by <CR><LF>.
Question 1
There are certain rows that end abruptly after a column for ex:
Row 1 <col1 data>.....<col2 data>.....<col3 data><CR><LF>
Row 2 <col1 data>.....<col2 data><CR><LF>
This seems to be throwing off the text file import as row 1 seems to be importing alright but row 2 gets ignored.
This not the behaviour I want. I want row 2 to also be imported and have a default of NULL for the columns that
are not specified.
Does anyone know how to achieve this?
Question 2
This is not that serious, but currently, I do not know of a way to ignore repeating column headers.
It would be nice if there was a way, but I can always resort to T-SQL based data cleaning after the import.
Thanks.
Shailen Sukul
|BSc|Mcsd.Net|Mcsd|Mcad|
Software Architect / Developer
Ashlen Consulting Services
http://www.ashlen.com.au
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Apr 21, 2003
Will be getting new file for download from vendor to process in future. When I use DTS or Import wizard in sql server I get "could not find the selected row delimiter within the first 8kb of data, is the selected delimited valid? This is for a fixed length file. If I answer yes and continue everything is fine, until I get to the end of the record which it can't find. It basically lumps the records together. What is interesting, that if I import the same file in Access 2000, I don't get this problem. ANyone seen this before? Could not find anything on MSDN
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Apr 18, 2008
what is the best way to import fixed length text file to sql server using SSIS?
I was trying to using text file source and ole db destination..but since the text file has no columns and have different length per column and per line( it show only one column becasue it all concatnated), I can not map it to destination column..
How can I import it?
Here is the example of text file ( fixed with row delimeter)that i need to import to different columns...
010000000000000000001164.00023 YV
02004101 1 2008-04-OLL 43456 0000000001 2008-04-08
030000100000000000000000000007.00
047890 7556 YYU 779
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Mar 3, 2006
I have a requirement to import a file of rows containing fixed length data. The problem is that each row can be one of 5 different formats (i.e. different columns) -- where the "type" of row is indicated by the first two characters of the row. Each row gets inserted into its own table.
Could I use a simple Conditional Split to route the rows? Or is the split for routing similiar rows? Anyways, problems are never this simple...
In addition, each "grouping" of rows is related. The "first" row is considered the "primary" row (and gets a row id via IDENTITY, whereas the remaining rows in the group are "secondary" rows and have foreign key references back the the primary rows id.
Given (using spaces to separate columns and CrLf to show "grouping"):
01 MSFT blah blah
02 blahblah blahblahblah
03 boring boringblah
01 AAPL blah blah
02 blahblah blahblahblah
03 boring boringblah
01 CSCO blah blah
02 blahblah blahblahblah
02 blahblah blahblahblah
03 boring boringblah
So, the first 3 lines are all related to a MSFT record which needs to be spread across multiple tables. The next three lines are all related to AAPL, And the next FOUR lines (yes, each record can have zero, one, or more secondary rows) are related to CSCO.
(If this is still not clear, all the "01" rows will be written to [Table1] with each row having an IDENTITY value. All the "02" rows will be written to [Table2] the a FK pointing to the correct [Table1] row. All the "03" rows will be written to... and so on.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
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Sep 23, 2014
I have approximately 13 columns. Each Column has a start position and end position.. I created this in a table and defined the position, it's still not working for me.
FiceCode char(6), -- starting position 1, field length 6
StateStudID char(10), -- starting position 7, field length 10
CampusStudID char(10), -- starting position 17, field length 10
LastName char(25), -- starting position 27, field length 25
[Code] .....
I need a text output file that will define each start position.I also used: right(replicate('0',25) + cast(last_name as char(25)), 25) in my sql statement.when I add the first_name, I can't get it to start in position 52.
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Apr 16, 2001
Hi, Does anybody know how to import a fixed field length ASCII text file which is 370 bytes into a SQL Table by DTS?
Thnaks,
Mano
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Jan 2, 2008
Hey All,
Similar to a previous post (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=244646&SiteID=1), I am trying to import data into a SQL Table.
I am trying to program a small application that will import product data obtained through suppliers via CD-ROM. One supplier in particular uses Fixed width colums, and data looks like this:
Example of Data
0124015Apple Crate 32.12
0124016Bananna Box 12.56
0124017Mango Carton 15.98
0124018Seedless Watermelon 42.98
My Table would then have:
ProductID as int
Name as text
Cost as money
How would I go about extracting the data with an XML Format file? I am stumbling over how to tell it where to start picking up data for a specific column.
Is there any way that I could trim the Name column (i.e.: "Mango Carton " --> "Mango Carton")?
I don't know if it makes any difference, but I've been calling SQL from my code by doing this:
Code in C# Form
SqlConnection SqlConnection = new SqlConnection(global::SQLClients.Properties.Settings.Default.ClientPhonebookConnectionString);
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO PhonebookTable(Name, PhoneNumber) VALUES('" + txtName.Text.ToString() + "', '" + txtPhoneNumber.Text.ToString() + "')";
cmd.Connection = SqlConnection;
SqlConnection.Open();
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
SqlConnection.Close();
RefreshData();
I am running Visual Studio C# Express 2005 and SQL Server Express 2005.
Thanks for your time,
Hayden.
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May 11, 2008
Hi,
I would like to read from a Text File using SSIS Integration Package.
The file has a fixed number of columns, let's say 3 columns.
There is no row header and each columns length is fixed. There is no delimiter as well.
Here is the sample of the file contents:
John Doe USA
Mary Monroe UK
Andy Archibald Singapore
Here is the hints to read the file contents
123456789
0123456789
0123456789
==============================
John Doe USA
Mary Monroe UK
Andy Archibald Singapore
If you notice, from the 1st column until the 9th column, it's reserved for the first name.
The 10-th column until the 19th column, it's reserved for the last name. Finally the 20-th column until the 29th column is reserved for the Origin Country.
Since there's no delimiter inside the flat file contents, i have difficulty in parsing this text using SSIS Package.
Please let me know if you need any necessary information.
Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
Hadi Teo.
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Apr 13, 2001
I created a package to import records from a fixed length 700 byte text file to a table in a SQL Database. I used the wizard to set it up and note the byte where each column ends. I need to customize the process, as the name of the text file will change each night, so I want to be able to set the file name from the VB front end app.
I have tried modifying the Datasource property of the DTS connection to the flat file, without success. I have also tried setting a global variable for the datasource property in DTS, and assigning that from VB, similarly without luck.
Do I have to create a custom package in code from VB? If so, how do indicate where each column in the text file ends? If I can customize the existing package, is there a specific reference that I need to set in my project that will let me control the value of the global?
TIA
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Dec 4, 2007
How do I create a text file with fixed length fields from a SQL table using a stored procedure.
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Feb 5, 2008
I need to write data into a fixed column length file and was wondering the best (most efficient) way to tackle this. For example, the first few pieces of the report I'm working on now would be:
PacketID - Starting position 1, Field length 9
TransactionID - Starting position 10, Field length 9
Group number - Starting position 19, field length 10
PID/SSN - Starting position 29, field length 10
For the PID/SSN, if I have a PID it'll be 10 digits and fill the field length, if I don't I use SSN which is only 9 digits and enter a space as the 10th digit. Obviously if I don't have certain pieces of information I'll just need spaces of the specified length to satisfy the file format. I'm using SQL 2005. Thanks in advance for any help provided.
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Feb 15, 2006
I have a fixed-length flat file that contains about 30 columns. I have got it pretty well figured out using the flat file connection tool, but I am having trouble with the end of the line.
I know when I look at the file it is a CrLf that separates the rows, and SSIS only seems to understand this to a certain extent. It knows to go to the next line, but it also adds two rectangles to the lines, like this:
Col1 Col2 Col3 Col4 Col5
aaaaaa bbbbb ccccc ddddd eeeee
[][]aaaaa bbbbb ccccc ddddd eee
ee[][]aaaaa bbbbb ccccc ddddd e
eeee[][]aaaaa bbbbb ccccc ddddd
While this does create a cool pattern, it is a pain in the butt. The only solution I have found is adding two more spaces to the last column in the table, but the ?s just get appended there.
If anybody has any clue how to get rid of them, that would be great.
Thanks in advance
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Jul 20, 2004
Hi,
I am trying to upload a fixed field text file to a sqlserver table using the DTS wizard. The txt file has 111 columns and the total length of a single row is 5897. The problem is when I use the wizard to specify the starting and ending of each column, its not allowing me to specify the columns beyond the position 4095.
Is there a limitation on this? if so is there a work around ? to solve this.
Any help on this is truly appreciated.
Thanks much. :)
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Jan 10, 2007
I'm trying to do an insert using Bulk Insert with a fixed length file.I'm using a format file.I'm getting the following error message:Cannot perform bulk insert. Invalid collation name for source column 16in format file '\wbhq.comdfsdviDataIntGOPFilesGOPFormatFile. txt'.Any suggestions are appreciated.Thanks!JenniferFormat File Contents:8.0161SQLCHAR02""0Space""2SQLCHAR04""1YearID""3SQLCHAR02""0Space""4SQLCHAR02""2PeriodID""5SQLCHAR02""3CompanyID""6SQLCHAR01""0Dash""7SQLCHAR04""0Space""8SQLCHAR01""0Dash""9SQLCHAR04""4UnitID""10SQLCHAR01""0Dash""11SQLCHAR04""5AccountCode""12SQLCHAR05""0Space""13SQLCHAR01""6AccountType""14SQLCHAR029""0Space""15SQLCHAR016""7GLAmount""16SQLCHAR0105"
"0Space""Bulk Insert Statement:BULK INSERT FlatFile_GOPFROM '\wbhq.comdfsdviDataIntGOPFilesGLPAM.GOP'WITH(FORMATFILE ='\wbhq.comdfsdviDataIntGOPFilesGOPFormatFile. txt')Table Definition:CREATE TABLE [dbo].[FlatFile_GOP] ([YearID] [smallint] NOT NULL ,[PeriodID] [smallint] NOT NULL ,[CompanyID] [smallint] NOT NULL ,[UnitID] [smallint] NOT NULL ,[AccountCode] [int] NOT NULL ,[AccountType] [char] (1) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL,[GLBalance] [money] NOT NULL) ON [PRIMARY]GOFile Contents:2007 210- -0002-3000 G196395.102007 210- -0002-3700 B1484.002007 210- -0002-3700 G1571.132007 210- -0002-3800 B157457.002007 210- -0002-3800 G161577.73
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Jul 16, 2004
Hi All,
I have a file that has fixed row size of 148 and fixed column size, but the file has no end of line character. I know it is wierd but a client has made the file and refuses to change the format. So I am stuck with reading it the way it is.
In Enterprise Manager, I used the Import/Export wizard and I specified fixed length and it let me specify 148 as the lenght of each line. Then it recognized the file and I was able to read it in.
I saved the DTS package and I can run it over and over again using dtsrun. However I want to do the same thing using Bulk Insert. How do you specify fixed row length for Bulk insert and how do you give it individual column lengths?
Thanks,
Shab
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Aug 21, 2006
Hi,
I'm trying to extract data from a Flat File which is as fixed length as they come. The file has a header, which simply contains the number of records in the file, followed by the records, with no header delimeter (No CR/LF, nothing).
For example a file would look like the following:
00000003Name1Address1Name2Address2Name3Address3
So this has 3 records (indicated by the first 8 characters), each consisting of a Name and Address.
I can't see a way to extract the data using a flat file connection, unless we add a delimeter for the header (not possible at this stage). Am I wrong?
Any suggestions on possible solution would be much appreciated - I'm thinking Ill have to write a script to parse the file manually.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
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Dec 8, 2006
When I use SQL 2000 DTS Export to create a fixed length flat file, the data rows are delimited by carriage return-line. Which means that when I open the flat file in a text editor like UltraEdit or WordPad, the data rows are broken out nicely (row ends at the max row length position and new row starts at position 0).
But when I use SSIS to create the file, the whole file is displayed as one line in WordPad. The data rows don't end at the max row lenght position in ultraEdit neither. From Flat File Connection Manager's Preview page, I can see the data rows are displayed properly.
Now I wonder if the flat file destination is a true fixed length file.
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Oct 19, 2007
I have a fixed width file that I only need a middle field imported.
The field I need starts at character 116 and is 15 character wide. What should my format file look like?
I have a format file that can import a field before it but this is data I don't need. How do you skip the first field?
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Dec 12, 2006
More SSIS woes. DTS was so much easier.
I have a flat file. It's fixed-with with CRLF record delimiters (a.k.a. Ragged Right format).
Some fields are null, and represented by the text NULL.
I'm trying to import the file into SQL via an OLE DB connection. The target table is a SQL 2000 data table. Two of the fields in the target database are of type smallint.
When I run PREVIEW on the data source (Flat File), everything looks good & correct. I added the convert columns task to convert my strings to smallint. This is where things go haywire.
After linking everything up, the conversion gives me a "Cannot convert because of a possible loss of data." All of my numbers are < 50, so I know this isn't the case. Another SSIS bogus error
My first instinct is the SSIS doesn't understand that NULL means null. I edited the file and replaced all instances of NULL with 4 emtpy string chars. Still no good. It seems to be having a hard time parsing the file now.
I dropped the convert task and tried editing the data source, and set the two smallint fields to smallint instead of string (SSIS formats). I get the same conversion error.
Changing the NULL values to 0 fixed the problem, but they're not 0. They're null.
Short of creating another script that converts all zeros to NULL using the aforementioned hack, I'm out of ideas.
I'm I missing something or is SSIS just incapable of handling nulls in fixed-width flat file formats?
TIA
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Mar 19, 2008
What is the best way to export fixed length data to text file in SSIS?
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Mar 28, 2007
Export to Fixed width text file
I am trying to export a table to a fixed lenght text file, there is only flat file option and that does not put LF/CR at the end of row, is there any solution?
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Mar 29, 2007
Export to Fixed width text file
I am trying to export a table to a fixed lenght text file, there is only flat file option and that does not put LF/CR at the end of row, is there any solution?
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Jul 23, 2005
We are using the bcp utility (via APIs) to export data from a SQL tablein a fixed format text file. BCP is inserting spaces for a field ifthe field contains a NULL. This is fine with us except at the end ofthe line, there are no spaces for that field just the end-of-rowterminator prematurely, so it looks like that field is not present andmesses up another piece of software we pump the text file into downstream.Example -- The last row illustrates the problem.123-49-890 Mary Smith Raleigh NC
999-88-123 Henry Ax Boston MA
456-99-123 Sue Kite WA
789-88-126 Andy Yates Philadelphia
We have thought about using a SQL query to convert the NULL dataexplicitly to spaces, but were wondering is there a switch or somethingin our format file to get around this.Thanks.
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Aug 28, 2007
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.
Thanks,
Mike
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Oct 30, 2006
I am trying to export data from a query in SQL Server 2005 SSIS to a flat file destination. Everything works fine except the rows returned from my query are written to the flat file in one long string (i.e., without line breaks). I have tried appending a new line character to the rows returned from the query but that only throws an error when the package is executed. My rows returned from the query are 133 characters wide (essentially only one column per row) so I have set the properties accordingly for a fixed width file format with 133 character wide rows.
Any suggestions or ideas on how to correct this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Michael
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Dec 28, 2007
We are converting an old (circa 2000) VB app that used an Access database to a C#/SQL Server 2005 database. One of the key business processes in this app was to import large quantities of data (200K+ at a time). The format of the text file is fixed length and while we would love to change it we are unable to (the user community would burn us in effigee if not for real). I have been looking at DTS, BCP, and Bulk Insert using format files and, while I think we can get most of the way there I am not sure if I am understanding the format file structure completly. Below is the import specification for one of our files:
FieldName DataType Start Length
AFIID C 1 5
LOCID C 7 15
LOGDATE C 23 11
LOGTIME C 35 4
LOGCODE C 40 4
HEADDIR C 45 3
SLUGVOL C 49 7
UNITS C 57 10
As you can see the each column is separated by a single space so that the second column starts two beyond the length of the first column, etc, etc. Here is an example of the data (the numbers in the first two rows are there to assist counting characters and do not exist in the real import file)
1 2 3 4 5 6
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-02 30-DEC-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 XX-XX 10-AUG-2000 1000 ABB DRW 123.23 CFS
C123 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 SDKJFDKL 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW DFDSF CFS
AFP29 01-SB-01 10-AUG-2000 0900 ABB DRW 9999.99 CFS
From what I have read about the structure of format files you start with the host file field order number, then the host file data type, then prefix length, then field length, then field terminator, then database column order, then database column name, and final the collation.
This looks like it would work great for delimeted files but in my case there are no delimiters. If I don't include a terminator ("") would the following format file spec import my data correctly?
9.0
8
1 SQLCHAR 0 5 "" 1 AFIID ""
2 SQLCHAR 0 15 "" 2 LOCID ""
3 SQLCHAR 0 11 "" 3 LOGDATE ""
4 SQLCHAR 0 4 "" 4 LOGTIME ""
5 SQLCHAR 0 4 "" 5 LOGCODE ""
6 SQLCHAR 0 3 "" 6 HEADDIR ""
7 SQLCHAR 0 7 "" 7 SLUGVOL ""
8 SQLCHAR 0 10 "
" 8 UNITS ""
Thanks,
Richard Anderson
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May 25, 1999
Hello All,
Can someone tell me how (in SQL) to convert an integer to a fixed length character filled with leading zeros. For example, I have an integer value of '125'. My user wants to see it displayed as '00000125'. How do I get the zeroes to fill in to a char(8) field when the length of the value differs, ie. '1', '125', '3452', etc.
Thanks in advance,
Terry
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Mar 4, 2015
I have this doubt and want to be sure if my thinking is correct.
Lets consider 2 tables one with Fixed length columns (char) and other table with Variable length columns (Varchar).
The table with fixed length column will always allocate same size within a Page however, table with variable length column will allocate actual length of data within a page.
I think that updates happening on table with fixed length columns will have more possibility of InPlace updates at least from data length perspective, however updates on table with variable length columns will have more split updates from data length perspective.
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Apr 17, 2000
SQLServer 7.0
Hi,
I have a small project on that involves importing a series of csv files held within an ftp directory into our Datawarehouse. Every day a series of csv files will be added to the directory. These will be named something like:
Audit1.csv,Audit2.csv etc.
I would like to automate this process as this can involve up to 400 files at a time. The proecedure would need to identify a valid file, import it into the database, delete the file and then move onto the next one.
Does anyone know of a way to achieve this? I was thinking along the lines of using a cursor and bcp but I'm not sure how to identify these files to the database i.e. how do i make it step through the directory and process the files?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Rob
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Oct 20, 1999
In a DTS package I have a text file import object, a data pump, and a SQL object. The text file import object has been set up to splice a 500 character wide file into 20 columns. The data pump task does a copy column for all the columns into the appropriate table. What I need to do is have a way of changing the file name I specify in the text import object. I have 12 months worth of data in seperate files (DBF0199.TXT, DBF0299.TXT, DBF0399.TXT, etc..)
which all use the same format. Is there a way to change the text import objects file name inside the package using an active script task or something?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Todd
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Dec 5, 2002
I'm trying to import a fixed field text file into SQL Server using DTS but everytime I go past 3640 characters, I am not able to add, delete or move column breaks after that. Is anyone else experiencing this problem and know of a work around. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Using SP2 on SQL Server 2000.
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Sep 14, 2004
Is it possible to handle text files i MS SQL 2000 in which fields contains single quotations and also are terminated by a single quotation
Like this:
1,2,'John's',1,2
John's contain a single quotation
Or is possible to rewrite file using MS SQL to use double quotation
Like this;
1,2,"John's",1,2
Hope that someone can help me out here, and doing it using MS SQL
At the time, I'm handlig it using MySql, but I would prefer using MS SQL
Regards
Carsten H.
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