A control file is a simple text file with a field name, data type, precision, and scale. Each line in the control file contains one column of data.

To generate column names from a control file at run-time, select

From control file

for the

Generate Run-time Column Names

property in the Advanced properties of the flat file data object. You must also configure the Read transformation to get the column metadata at run time.

You can specify any of the following data types in the control file:

Bigint
Date/Time
Decimal
Double
Integer
String
Text
TimestampwithTZ

You can use a control file to generate run-time column names for a Read transformation based on a flat file data object or to create a flat file data object. The Data Integration Service constructs the column metadata for the flat file by using the information present in the control file. The column name, precision, data type, and scale attributes are comma delimited. The newline character delimits information across columns.