When you configure a macro output field, you select the macro input field to use and define a naming convention for the output fields. You can customize a prefix or suffix for the naming convention. By default, the macro output field uses the following naming convention for output fields: <macro_input_field>_out.

You can define the data type, precision, and scale of the output fields. Or, you can configure the macro output field to use the datatype, precision, and scale of the incoming fields. Use the datatype of incoming fields when the incoming fields include more than one datatype and when the expression does not change the datatype of incoming data.

At run time, the task generates output fields based on the macro output field configuration. The task creates an output field for each incoming field that the macro input field represents, and then writes the results of the expression to the output fields.

For example, the following image shows a macro output field that creates output fields based on the incoming fields that %QuarterlyData% represents:

If the %QuarterlyData% macro input field represents the Q1 to Q4 fields, then the task creates the following output fields at run time: Q1_out, Q2_out, Q3_out, Q4_out. The output fields have the same datatype as the incoming fields.

Note that you cannot define the precision and scale after you select the Input Field Type datatype.