Fixed Length Text format

When to use this format

In fixed-length text files, each field starts and ends at the same place in every record. Otherwise, they are the same as CSV.

Use fixed-length format when configuring a source-to-destination transformation that reads or writes fixed-length files.

Creating format

To create a new fixed-length format, go to Connections, select Formats tab, click Add Format button and type in fixed in the search field. 

Below are the available parameters:

• Fields - a comma-separated list of values, each representing the size of the fields. For example: 5,20,10,7 are 4 fields with the sizes 5, 20, 10 and 7 characters, respectively.
• Enclosure Character- a character used to enclose fields in. By default, only the fields that contain Delimiter will be enclosed. Enable Always enclose to enclose all fields.
• Always enclose - if this option enabled, the system will always enclose fields in quotes (assuming that the Enclosure Character is configured). The default behavior is to enclose fields only if they contain the delimiter character. 
• Escape double-quotes - if double-quotes are used to enclose fields, then a double-quote appearing inside a field will be escaped by preceding it with another double quote.
• Line Separator - a character used as a separator between lines.
• Default Extension - the default extension is used when the file name doesn't have an extension. If not entered, dat is the default extension.
• Ignore Byte order mark character (BOM) - uncheck this option if you do not want the parser to ignore the byte order mark character (BOM). The default is ignore.
• Template - this is a template in the fixed length text format. If this field is not empty, Integrator will use it to populate column names and data types. Template is an optional field. For example: first-name last-name dob.
• Use First Row for Data - if checked, it is assumed that the file doesn't have a "fields" header.
• Column names compatible with SQL - convert column names to SQL-compatible column names by removing all characters, except alphanumeric and spaces.
• Skip First Row - if this option is enabled, the system skips the first row in a file. Typically, it is used together with Use First Row for Data.
• Skip not Properly Formatted Rows - if this option is enabled, the system skips rows which do not conform to the CSV format. For example, if a row has a different number of columns.
• Skip Empty Rows - sometimes, CSV files contain completely empty rows with no values or delimiters. Integrator can be configured to skip those rows; otherwise it will generate an exception when reading that file.
• Document has extra data columns - if this option is enabled, Integrator will be able to read CSV documents, even if the number of header columns is less than the number of data columns.
• Start row - if this value is not empty, the system will start reading the file from the specified 1-based row and will ignore previous rows.
• End row - if this value is not empty, the system will stop reading the file after the specified 1-based row.
• Transformation type - the default is filter, which allows you to write JavaScript code to filter out some of the rows in the CSV file, but you can also select preprocessor or header. Read more about using a preprocessor to modify the contents of the source document. If header is selected and Filter or Preprocessor or Header is not empty, the header will be added at the beginning of the file, followed by an end-of-line character, followed by the actual data.
• Filter or Preprocessor or Header - JavaScript code that filters out lines and changes a line or the entire document. Read more about filters. If header is selected for Transformation type, the specified header will be added at the beginning of the file, followed by an end-of-line character, followed by the actual data.
• All fields are strings - If this option is enabled (it is disabled by default) the system will create all fields with a string data type.
• Date and Time Format - a format for timestamps (date+time).
• Date Format - a format for date (date only, no time).
• Time Format - a format for time (time only, no date).
• Parse Dates - if this option is enabled, and date or time value is not recognized as one of the formats defined above, Integrator will try to parse it using one of the well know date+time formats.
• Trim Strings - if this option is enabled, Integrator will trim the leading and trailing white-spaces from the value.
• Treat 'null' as null - if this option is enabled, Integrator will treat string values equal to 'null' as actual nulls (no value).
• Encode CLOB fields using Base64 - if this option is enabled (default), Integrator will encode fields with the CLOB data type using Base64 algorithm.
• Stript not printable characters - if this option is enabled (it is disabled by default) the system will strip not printable characters, such as null-character (/0), from the data row when creating a file.
• Encoding - character encoding when reading and writing CSV file. No encoding means there will be no additional encoding.