Developer Tool Guide

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Creating a Flat File Data Object from an Existing Flat File

Create a flat file data object from an existing flat file when you have a flat file that defines the metadata you want to include in the data object.

Select a project or folder in the

Object Explorer

view.

Click

File

New

Data Object

Select

Physical Data Objects

Flat File Data Object

and click

The

New Flat File Data Object

dialog box appears.

Select

Create from an existing flat file

Click

Browse

and navigate to the directory that contains the file.

Click

Open

The wizard names the data object the same name as the file you selected.

Optionally, edit the data object name.

Optionally, click

Browse

to select a project or folder for the data object.

Click

Select a code page that matches the code page of the data that you want to process.

Select

Delimited

Fixed-width

Optionally, edit the maximum number of rows to preview.

Click

Configure the format properties, based on whether the flat file is delimited or fixed-width.

For a delimited flat file, configure the following properties:

Property	Description
Delimiters	Character used to separate columns of data. If you enter a delimiter that is the same as the escape character or the text qualifier, you might receive unexpected results.
Text Qualifier	Quote character that defines the boundaries of text strings. If you select a quote character, the Developer tool ignores delimiters within pairs of quotes.
Import Column Names From First Line	If selected, the Developer tool uses data in the first row for column names. Select this option if column names appear in the first row. The Developer tool prefixes "FIELD_" to field names that are not valid.
Row Delimiter	Specify a line break character. Select from the list or enter a character. Preface an octal code with a backslash (\). To use a single character, enter the character. The Data Integration Service uses only the first character when the entry is not preceded by a backslash. The character must be a single-byte character, and no other character in the code page can contain that byte. Default is line-feed, \012 LF (\n).
Escape Character	Character immediately preceding a column delimiter character embedded in an unquoted string, or immediately preceding the quote character in a quoted string. When you specify an escape character, the Data Integration Service reads the delimiter character as a regular character.
Start Import at Line	Row number at which the Data Integration Service starts reading when it imports the file. For example, if you specify to start at the second row, the Developer tool skips the first row before reading.
Treat Consecutive Delimiters as One	If selected, the Data Integration Service reads one or more consecutive column delimiters as one. Otherwise, the Data Integration Service reads two consecutive delimiters as a null value.
Retain Escape Character in Data	Includes the escape character in the output string.

For a fixed-width flat file, configure the following properties:

Property	Description
Import Column Names From First Line	If selected, the Developer tool uses data in the first row for column names. Select this option if column names appear in the first row.
Start Import at Line	Row number at which the Data Integration Service starts reading when it imports the file. For example, if you specify to start at the second row, the Developer tool skips the first row before reading.
Column breaks	Configures the column breaks in the fixed-width file. Click Edit Breaks to edit column breaks. Or, follow the directions in the wizard to manipulate the column breaks in the file preview window. You can move column breaks by dragging them. Or, double-click a column break to delete it.