We have a flat file format generated from a vendor. It contains a "mainframe" view of the data with a header record, batch header record, detailed records, batch trailer record and trailer record. It arrives as a .dat file. What is the best approach to extract the necessary columns out of this file to populate the corresponding SQL server tables and rows?
View 3 RepliesI am trying to load a file using SSIS that contains records with two different layouts in one data file but in the flat file connection I can only specify one layout and this is causing the records with the second layout to be loaded incorrectly.
The different record layouts can be identified by the first character of the record. Example: If Field begins with "A" then assign one layout; "B" assign second layout.
Has anybody come accross this issue, if so some guidence would be appreciated.
Thanks,
ire_ssis
I'm using SSIS to import seven flat files (each containing a different record type) into a staging database. This part was easy.
Now I need to export the records from all seven tables into a single flat file structured in a nested hierarchy using common keys. (This format is required by the vendor for loading data into a new system).
I could use some ideas on the data transformations needed to combine all seven record types into an hierarchical record set which can then be written to my Flat File Destination. I'm currently looking at an article on SLQIS.com ("Handling Different Row Types In The Same File") which seems close to what I need, but they are importing (ref: www.sqlis.com/54.aspx ). I'm not sure if I should just reverse this for export or use something different. Any comments are appreciated.
Diagram of Record Hierarchy
typeA (parent key, ...)
typeB1 (parent key, childSet key, date, ...)
typeB2 (parent key, childSet key, ...)
typeC (parent key, childSet key, ...)
typeD (parent key, childSet key, ...)
typeE1 (parent key, childSet key, date, ...)
typeE2 (parent key, childSet key, ...)
The record types B1 through E2 form a complete set. Each set has it's own unique child-set key. There may be one or more sets for each typeA record (although it's possible that typeE records don't exist in the most recent set).
Hi,
i have simple requirement...but dont know how to proceed. I need to move the first record from a flat file (file1) to another flat file(file2) using SSIS, file1 will have many records but i just need the first one alone to be moved. Any pointers on this would be of much help.
Thanks,
raj
I'm rather new to ssis and I've been reading and testing but didn't find a solution for this problem.Supose I've got a table Customer with some fields. One of the fields is CustID.I want to create as many flat files as there are Customers in the table with flat file name set to the CustID.If you could point me in a good direction, It would be nice.Greetings from Belgium
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a table that holds in each record an image (varbinary(max) actually), a text reference for the image and a MIME type for the image. I need to read this table and for each record that has been created since the last run, I need to create a file with the image as the content, the mime type as the file extension and the text reference as the file name. There will be one file created per record found by the data flow source.
I was assuming that I could use the flat file destination and manipulate the file naming using the contents of each record in the flow but am completely stumped on how to achieve this.
Does anyone have any ideas?
thanks
Hey all!
Okay, can I assign line x of a flat file to a variable, parse that line, do my data transformations, and then move on to line x+1?
Any thoughts?
In other words, I'm looking at using a for loop to cycle through a flat file. I have the for loop set up, and the counter's iterating correctly. How do I point at a particular line in a flat file?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Jim Work
I am currently working on project where I need to insert, delete and update data from a text file I receive into multiple tables. So the file has multiple recordset types(50 to be exact) and each record has a a code to perform an -Update, Insert, or Delete to the destination table. Also when I receive the records they are not sorted. I need to sort the sets for each destination table and then read the the sorted set sequentially and perform the correct action.
Currently I am importing the record via flatfilesource into one column. I am using a script component here that would consist I guess 50 outputs including the fields needed for each table. The outputs are sorted by sortkey field and when I add the record to the output I perform data type transforms needed for each field(most are strings but I need to convert some dates, numbers ect..).
***is there a better way of accomplishing this?***
(ps. I could use the conditional split and the derive column into the 50 different table but it was giving me errors that were almost forcing me to use a nvarchar type instead of a varchar type during some of the field transformations.)
At this point I would need to read through each of the outputs sequentially and perform the update, insert or delete into the needed table. Would I have to create 50 script components with an ADO.net recordset adapter to update the tables for each of the outputs? I am hoping you can help come up with a better way to accomplish all of this.
Also if I do need to update the tables with the script component could someone point me to an example of how to programmatically accomplish that. Thanks for any help of suggestions that you may provide as I am feeling kind of stuck.
Hi,
I've just started looking at SSIS and have encountered what should hopefully be a simple problem to solve. I have a pipe-separated source file that looks like this (I've added Line numbers for simplicity):
Ln 01: HDR|FEED_CODE|31-MAR-2006
Ln 02: Tom|100|Jones|ZZ1 1ZZ|USA
Ln 03: Tom|200|Singer|
Ln 04: Tom|305||Red|Porche ||Lanzarote |Apple|Carrot| | |
Ln 05: Dick|100|Van Dyke|ZZ1 1ZZ|USA
Ln 06: Dick|200|Actor|
Ln 07: Dick|305||Blue|Ford||California |Tomato | |||Beef
Ln 08: Harry|100|Houdini|ZZ1 1ZZ|GBR
Ln 09: Harry|200|Escapologist|
Ln 10: Harryk|305| |Green ||Triumph |Poland|Banana|Sprout| | |
Ln 11: TRL|9
In addition to a header and footer records, this file contains three record types for each person.
Record types are identified by the second column.
Each record type has a different number of columns:
Type 100 has 5 columns
Type 200 has 4 columns
Type 305 has 12 columns
The Row delimiter for all records is the {CR}{LF} character
I've set up a flat file input source and specified {CR}{LF} as the row delimiter for both header and data rows and the "|" character as the field delimiter.
It appears that SSIS is assuming that because the first data row has 5 columns, then everything must fit that format too. So the {CR}{LF} character that separates lines 02 and 03 is interpreted as text rather than a separation character and all remaining | field separators after 305 are interpreted as text containing in the fifth column. SSIS is also complaining that the last row is incomplete.
A bit like this (I've used tildes to indicate column separation):
Tom~100~Jones~ZZ1 1ZZ~USA
Tom~200~Singer~{CR}{LF}Tom~305||Red|Porche ||Lanzarote |Apple|Carrot| | |
I've seen one other reference to this behaviour but the response seemed to be SSIS doesn't know which columns are missing. In this scenario, we don't have missing columns, rather, we have different types of record in a single file. in DTS I would effectively parse the file once for each record type thus:
if cStr(DTSSource("Col002")) = "100" then
DTSDestination("in_Name") = trim(DTSSource("Col001"))
...
Main = DTSTransformStat_OK
else
Main = DTSTransformStat_SkipInsert
end if
...not the most efficient solution I know but the load only runs once a month so this was an acceptable workaround.
DTS was never this fussy but I'm sure this is user error rather than an SSIS limitiion. Can someone please put me straight?
Many thanks,
Greg
I am working on an SSIS project where I create two flat files for submission to a data contractor. This contractor requires a control record be the first line in the file. I create the control record based on the table information being exported.
What I would like to know is, is it possible to utilize the Header Section of the Flat File Destination Editor to insert the control record? And, as it is dynamic, what kind of coding must I do in order to utlise this functionality?
Thanks.
Hi DBA's,
I need to break up a 34 byte column into several columns. Here is my problem.
Table A:
Col1..Col2..Col3..Col4..Col5..Col6..Col7..Col8..Co l9..Col10
Col 9 is char (2) and Col10 is char (34). It is this column that needs to be broken up into several columns depending on the value in Col 9.
Col1 to Col3 is the key to the record.
So say if record 1 has Col 9 value 'AA' then Col10 ( 34 bytes) is to be spilt into 10+10+10+4 (four columns).The value 'AA' can repeat for several records and the value in Col 10 can change for the same value 'AA'.
Now say record 27 has Col 9 value 'BB' then Col 10 is to be split as 5+25+4 (3 columns).
There are 15 such unique values of Col 9. I have the file layouts for Col 10 for each distinct value of Col 9. So using the file layouts and Table A which exists in my database how do I proceed.
Need I make 15 tables ( one each for the 15 unique Col 9 values). These structure
Col1..Col2..Col3...Col9 (the key fields and Col 9) will be common to every table. Plus the file layouts will serve as additional columns specific to each of these tables.
Kindly help.
Vivek
Hi-I have a sql database (2005) that I need to extract a report from that looks somehintg like SELECT * From Empl_Hours WHERE some_flag <> 'true' .The thing works fine, but the problem is this: I need to insert a record in the 1st row that looks like "Static_text"+row_count() +"more_static_text"where row_count is the actual # of rows that were retrieved. Thanks in advance for any help.DAn
View 3 Replies View RelatedSo here's the issue
16 flat files all fixed width. Some over 350 columns.
Open flat file 1
extract id and go see if its in table 1, if true update table 1 with first 30 columns
otherwise insert into table 1 first 30 columns.
goto table 2, lookup id, insert/update next 30 columns...etc..etc..for 10 different tables
So I've got my flat file source, I do a derived column to convert the dates, i've got a lookup for table 1, then 2 ole db commands, 1 for update if lookup successful, 1 for insert if lookup fails.
How can I pass the id as a param into the update command so it updates where x = 'x'
also I need a pointer on doing the next lookup, eg table 2, would I do this as some sort of loop?.
If you can help great, but, please don't just reply with "I'd use this object"...then no explanation of how
v.v.frustrated newbie to SSIS
Probably a stupid and regularly asked question but I can't seem to find an answer, so here goes,
we have 16 .txt files, some with over 350 columns.
That info from each individual file needs importing to multiple sql tables.
need to look at sql table1 does record exist? if not create new then add in data once its been transformed eg datetime from yyyymmdd into datetime values [managed to get this using derived column] for first 20 columns, otherwise do update for the 20 columns...
then look at sql table2 and repeat for next n columns....
So I was wondering is it going to be better to write this as a dtsx package? if so can you point me to an example
or should I just write the code as part of a code behind page that scrapes the info and does a standard update/insert procedure?
Any help would be welcome.
thanks
I have a requirement where I need to pass some parameters using URL and that URL generate CSV file which I need to save to a shared drive.Here is sample URL....where practice, start and end are parameters.I need to automate the process and trigger ULR passing those parameters every month so that CVS file is saved automatically to a shared driver. How can I create SSIS package to that?
View 9 Replies View Related
We are trying to use SSIS Import export wizrd to import the flat files (CSV format) that we have into MS SQL Server 2005 database tables. We have huge number of CSV files. Is there a way by which we can import these flat (CSV) files in to corresponding SQL server tables in a single shot. I would really appreciate this help as it is painful to convert each and every file using the Import Export wizard.
Thank you very much,
Regards,
Srinivas Raveendra
Hi,
I want to combine a series of outputs from tsql queries into a single flat file destination using SSIS.
Does anyone have any inkling into how I would do this.
I know that I can configure a flat file connection manager to accept the output from the first oledb source, but am having difficulty with subsequent queries.
e.g. output
personID, personForename, personSurname,
1, pf, langan
***Roles
roleID, roleName
1, developer
2, architect
3, business analyst
4, project manager
5, general manager
6, ceo
***joinPersonRoles
personID,roleID
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,4
1,5
1,6
I have a package that contains three database tables (Header, detail and trailer record) each table is connected via a OLE DB source in SSIS. Each table varies in the amount of colums it holds and niether of the tables have the same field names. I need to transfer all data, from each table, in order, to a flat file destination.
View 6 Replies View Related
Hi everyone,
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.
Hi,
I am testing SSIS and have created a Flat File Destination. I defined the Flat File Connection as New for the first time and it worked fine. Now, I would like to go back and modify the Flat File Connection in the Flat File Destination Editor, but it allows only to create a New connection rather allowing me to edit the existing one. For testing, I can go back and create a new connection, but if my connection had 50-100 columns then it would be an issue to re-create it from scratch.
Did someone else faced this issue?
Thanks,
AQ
Hello Guys,
I am working in one company and currently I am assigned to new project for Data Migration from company X to our company Y using SSIS. I am totally new and i just completed 5 tutorial which was gien on MSDN website.
Basically client is going to send us first flat file with 1 million records with Header, Detail and Trailer records.
I want to create a Package in such a way that it dumps all this first load into 7 to 8 different tables at a time.
we also have to include functionlity for validation and error check.
On successfull load error file should only return Header and Trailer but no detail records.
If there are any errors then error file should contain Header, Detail records which were unable to load plus trailer which we have to sent back to client.
When 2nd file comes that time we have to check whether this is new records or change (update) one depending on Flag which tells it.
This is basically high level idea of my Package what i need to create. If u guys have any question then let me know.
I know you guys are very experienced one. Anyone of you please give me some detail idea on it I would really appricate it.
I have very limited time line for it.
Thanks
Shah
Hi,
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?
Any inputs will be appreciated.
M.Shah
I have a text file to import where there are three file types: a header which has info about who sent the file and begins with 'H', detail records that begins with D and a trailer record that begins with T and just has the record count following that. The fields are delimited by '*'. H, D and T records each contain a different number of fields.
I suspect that what I should do is to split this file into three separate files. I tried to do this with SSIS but ran into problems. If I make the output a file destination, it won't let me use that output as input for the next process. There are no arrows I can grab onto to link to the next transform.
This is my first SSIS package although I made hundreds of DTS packages a few years ago. I can't figure this out in DTS either.
This sounds like it should be an EASY thing to do.
A flat file I must parse has multiple record types in the same file that must be processed together. For instance, in the following example:
01TestStuff888
02TestStuff2
03TestStuff3
01TestStuff4
02TestStuff5
Each 01 record type has the records after it associated to it until the next 01 appears, so TestStuff would have TestStuff 2,3 related to it while TestStuff 4,5 belong together. In the example the 888 in the 01 record is the key to the group, but it does not appear in the following lines.
The problem is that each record type has different line formats, columns, etc, so they must be parsed differently. I have created a conditional branch on the first two characters, and written each record type out to a seperate flat file for that type, so that they can be imported again and parsed with the Flat File Source, but I am unsure how to relate them again. I tried appending the 888 to the other lines before they were written out, but I can't find a way to share the variable across the conditional split branches using a script component.
Does anyone have an idea how I could parse these files and keep the relationship intact?
Is there a way to tell the flat file wizard to use a different map based on certain characters?
Is there a way to share a variable across the different braches of a conditional split.
Strange question I know, but thanks for any help.
Travis
Hi all,
I m using SSIS and i am transfering the data from Flat File Source to the OLE DB destination File. The source file contain some corrupt data which i am transfering to the other Flat file destination file.
Debugging is succesful but i am not getting any error output in the Flat file destination file.
i had done exactly which is written in the msdn tutorial of SSIS.
Plz tell me why i am not getting the error output in the destination flat file?
thanx
Howdy all,
I've seen several posts about reading and writing files that have different record types with varying column metadata. My particular file has 11 record types plus several header types and looks something like:
<Header1>
<Header2>
<Detail01-#1>
<Subdetail02>
<Subdetail03>
...
<Detail01-#2>
<Subdetail02>
<Subdetail03>
...
...
Since i need to get different detail and subdetail records, i can't really use the technique of 3 dest file connection managers found in http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=87269&SiteID=1
I've tried using an exec sql to get the main detail records and then a forech ADO en umerator that would get the subdetails, but it all seems so kludgy. I'm starting to think that I should just write the bulk of the file creation code in a c# app instead of trying to smush this into SSIS. Opinions? Am I missing some trick in SSIS?
TIA,
-Peter
First, a couple of important bits of information. Until last week, I had never touched SISS, and therefore, I know very little about it. I just never had the need to use it...until now. I was able to convert my first 3 flat files to SQL2005 tables by right clicking on "SISS Package" and choosing "SISS Import and Export Wizard". That is the extent of my knowledge! So please, please, please be patient with me and be as descriptive as possible.
I thought I could attach some sample files to this post, but it doesn't look like I can. I'll just paste the information below in two separate code boxes. The first code box is the flat file specifications and the second one is a sample single line flat file similar to what I'm dealing with (the real flat file is over 2 gigs).
My questions are below the sample files.
Code Snippet
Record Length 400
Positions Length FieldName
Record Type 01
1,2 L=2 Record Type (Always "01")
3,12 L=10 Site Name
13,19 L=7 Account Number
20,29 L=10 Sub Account
30,35 L=6 Balance
36,37 L=1 Active
37,41 L=5 Filler
Record Type 02
1,2 L=2 Record Type (Always "02")
3,4 L=2 State
5,30 L=26 Address
31,41 L=11 Filler
Record Type 03
1,2 L=2 Record Type (Always "03")
3,6 L=4 Coder
7,20 L=14 Locator ID
21,22 L=2 Age
23,41 L=19 Filler
Record Type 04
1,2 L=2 Record Type (Always "04")
3,9 L=7 Process
10,19 L=10 Client
20,26 L=6 DOB
26,41 L=16 Filler
Record Type 05
1,2 L=2 Record Type (Always "05")
3,16 L=14 Guarantor
17,22 L=6 Guar Account
23,23 L=1 Active Guar
**There can be multiple 05 records, one for each Guarantor on the account**
and the single line flat file...
Code Snippet
01Site1 12345 0000098765 Y 02NY1155 12th Street 03ELL 0522071678 29 04TestingSmith,Paul071678 05Smith, Jane 445978N 05Smith, Julie 445989N 05Smith, Jenny 445915N 01Site2 12346 0000098766 N 02MN615 Woodland Ct 04InfoJones,Chris 012001 01Site3 12347 0000098767 Y 02IN89 Jade Street 03OWB 6429051282 25 04Screen New,Katie 879500
As you can see, each entry could have any number of records and multiples of some of the record types, with one exception, every entry must have a "01" record and can only have one "01" record. Oh, and each record has a length of 400.
I need to get this information into a SQL 2005 database so I can create a front end for accessing the data. Originally, I wanted one line for each account and have null values listed for entries that don't have a specific record. Now that I've looked at the data again, that doesn't look like a good idea. I think a better way to do it would be to create 5 different tables, one for each record type. However, records 2 through 5 don't have anything I can make a primary key. So here are my questions...
Is it possible to make 5 tables from this one file, one table for each of the record types?
If so, can I copy the Account number in record 01, position 13-19 in each of the subsequent record types (that way I could link the tables as needed)?
Can this be done using the SISS Import and Export Wizard to create the package? If not, I'm going to need some very basic step by step instructions on how to create the package.
Is SISS the best way to do this conversion or is there another program that would be better to use?
I know this is a huge question and I appreciate the help of anyone who boldly decides to help me! Thank you in advance and I welcome anyone's suggestions!
How can I take this example Flat file and parse out each section to a new flat file? Each section starts with HD (header row)
http://www.webfound.net/flat_file_example.txt
e.g. an example output file based on above (cutting out the first section) would be:
http://www.webfound.net/flatfile_output.txt
Also, I'll need to grab a certain value in each header row (certain position in the 100 byte header row) to use that as part of the filename that's outputed. I assume it would be better to insert these rows into a temp table then somehow do a search on a specific position in the row...but that's impossible? The other route is to insert each row into a temp table separated out by fields but that is going to be too combursome because we have several formats to determine separation of fields based on the row type so I'd have to create many temp tables and many components in SSIS when all we want to do is again:
1) output each group (broken by each header row) into it's own txt file
2) use a field in the header row as part of the name of the output txt file (e.g. look at the first row, whcih is a header row in flat_file_example. txt. I want to grab the text 'AR10' and use that as part of the filename that I create
Any suggestions on how to approach this whole process in SSIS...the simplest approach that will work ?
I have a couple of hundred flat files to import into database tables using SSIS.
The files can be divided into groups by the format they use. I understand that I could import each group of files that have a common format at the same time using a Foreach Loop Container.
However, the example for the Foreach Loop Container has multiple files all being imported into the same database table. In my case, each file needs to be imported into a different database table.
Is it possible to import each set of files with the same format into different tables in a simple loop? I can't see a way to make a Data Flow Destination item accept its table name dynamically, which seems to prevent me doing this.
I suppose I could make a different Data Flow Destination item for each file, in the Data Flow. Would that be a reasonable solution, or is there a simpler solution, or should I just resign myself to making a separate Data Flow for every single file?
I used the data export wizard to export a single table to a single flat file (multiple wasn't allowed). I saved the package as a *.dtsx file which I'm attempting to edit to add the additional tables.
Creating additional sources is fairly easy copy of the first source and change to the table name.
I've tried copying the destination connection and changing to a new text file, but can't get past having to add each column manually to the new destination.
How can I duplicate the mapping that must be taking place in the wizard in the *.dtsx editing environment?
This seems like a simple / common task, but I've been unable to find a solution.
Thanks, Richard
Hi,
I have searched but not found quite the best way to look at this so far..
I have an application that outputs data to several text files (up to 30). These have commonality by an object name, but then contain completely different column data.
In DTS I had each of the source text file connections going to one OLE DB connection and then individual transform data tasks pointing to the one OLE DB connection.
Looking at SSIS, it would appear that I would need to have one source and one destination for each of these and therefore 30 parallel data flows?
Just wondering if there is a neater way of doing this??
It is a regular data import that happens a few times a day - the text files are named the same as the SQL tables - ie app_userdata.txt goes to app_userdata table.
Hope that explains ok and thanks in advance.
Mike
Hi,
How can we insert multiple records in a OLEDB destination table for each entry from the source table.
To be more clear, for every record from source we need to insert some 'n' number of records into the destination table. this 'n' changes depending on the record.
how is this achieved.
thanks.