Sequential File Outputs page - Columns tab
Use the Columns tab to define the column metadata for the selected output link.
You can define columns by typing them in the grid, or you can load predefined column definitions from the repository.
The Columns tab has the following components:
- Columns grid
- The columns grid contains the following fields:
- Column name
- Specifies the name of the column.
- Key
- Indicates whether the column is part of the primary key.
- SQL type
- Specifies the SQL data type of the column.
- Length
- Specifies the data precision of the column. This is the length for CHAR data and the maximum length for VARCHAR data.
- Scale
- Specifies the data scale factor of the column. For Sequential File stages, the scale should not exceed 9.
- Nullable
- Indicates whether the column can contain null values.
- Display
- Specifies the maximum number of characters that are required to display the column data.
- Data element
- Specifies the type of data in the column.
- Null string
- Overrides the default setting on the Format tab for this particular column.
- Padding
- Overrides the default setting on the Format tab for this particular column.
- Contains terminators
- Specifies how End-of-Record (EOR) marks are treated in this column. Select
one of the following options:
- Yes
- Specifies that the data might include EOR marks and that the marks are not interpreted as the end of the record. For the final column definition for a CSV file, the Yes option is disabled.
- Quoted
- Specifies that any EOR marks that are part of the data are quoted, and unquoted EOR marks are interpreted as the end of the record.
- No
- Specifies that any EOR marks in the column are interpreted as the end of the record.
- Incomplete column
- Specifies the action to take if the column contains insufficient data
to match the metadata. Select one of the following options:
- Error
- Stops the job when such a row is found.
- Discard & Warn
- Discards the current data row and issues a warning.
- Replace & Warn
- Pads a short column with a SQL null, or acts in accordance with the setting in the Missing columns action field if a column is missing, and writes a warning to the log file.
- Retain & Warn
- Passes the data as is, but issues a warning.
- Retain
- Passes the data as is.
- Replace
- Pads a short column with a SQL null, or acts in accordance with the setting in the Missing columns action field if a column is missing.
The behavior of this field also depends on whether the sequential file is fixed-width or CSV. In CSV format, it is impossible to have a short column, so your setting applies only to missing columns and the Retain options have no meaning.
- Description
- Contains a description of the column.
- Save
- Opens the Save Table Definition window. Use this window to save columns as a table definition in the repository. You can subsequently reuse the table to provide column definitions for other stages.
- Load
- Opens the Table Definitions window. Use this window to load column definitions from a table in the repository.