After you import flat file metadata into the project, you can verify the properties that you configured for a flat file in the

Properties

tab from the

Discover | Tables

view. To view the properties that you configured for each column of the flat file, you can click the

Columns

tab.

The following image shows the flat file properties that you can view in a project:

To perform a TDM operation, you must create a plan. Add the components to the plan and specify the source and target connections. You can specify the datetime format settings in the advanced plan settings.

The following image shows the plan properties that you can configure for a flat file source:

If you specify a flat file target, you can configure the flat file properties when you override the source settings. You can specify the datetime format settings in the advanced source settings of the plan. If the source is a relational database and the target is a flat file, TDM produces datetime output in the format that you specify in the

Advanced Settings

properties in step 6. You can override the settings in the

Source Settings

properties in step 7. If both the source and target are flat files, TDM produces datetime output in the format that you configured in PowerCenter.

The following image shows the properties that you can configure for a flat file:

The following table describes the flat file properties that you can configure in a plan:

Connection Options	Description
Output Filename	The name of the target file. Required if the target is a flat file. Default is <name of selected source>.out.
File Encoding	The file encoding type. Required if the target is a flat file. If the source is a flat file, the default type is what the flat file contains. If the source is relational, default is MS Windows Latin 1 (ANSI), superset of Latin1. You can select the type of flat file encoding that you want in the target.
File Format	The format of a flat file. Required if the target is a flat file. You can choose one of the following options: Fixed Width. The width of the columns is fixed. You cannot specify a column delimiter. Delimited. You can limit the width of the columns. Specify a column delimiter. Default is Delimited.
Column Delimiter	A character that separates columns of data. Required if the source is a flat file and if the file format is delimited. Default is a comma (,).
Row Separator	A character that separates rows of data. Required if the source is a flat file. Default is \012 LF (\n).
Optional Quotes	Select No Quotes, Single Quote, or Double Quotes. If you select a quote character, the PowerCenter Integration Service ignores delimiter characters within the quote characters. Therefore, the Integration Service uses quote characters to escape the delimiter. For example, a source file uses a comma as a delimiter and contains the following row: 342-3849, ‘Smith, Jenna’, ‘Rockville, MD’, 6. If you select the optional single quote character, the PowerCenter Integration Service ignores the commas within the quotes and reads the row as four fields. If you do not select the optional single quote, the PowerCenter Integration Service reads six separate fields. When the PowerCenter Integration Service reads two optional quote characters within a quoted string, it treats them as one quote character. For example, the Integration Service reads the following quoted string as I’m going tomorrow: 2353, ‘I’’m going tomorrow’, MD Additionally, if you select an optional quote character, the PowerCenter Integration Service reads a string as a quoted string if the quote character is the first character of the field. You can improve session performance if the source file does not contain quotes or escape characters.
Include Headers	Optional. You can choose to include the headers in the target flat file. Default is Yes.