File source operators

File source operators extract data sets from various types of formatted flat files and make the resulting data set available for transformation in a data flow. A file import operator is a file source operator.

Starting in V10.1.0.2, the file import operator File Import has been renamed to File Source. It now supports some functions of the Db2 continuous ingest utility. If a function of the ingest utility is not specified in this section, then this product does not support it.

A file source operator extracts data from a delimited, fixed-length, or integrated exchange format (PC/IXF) file. Data extracted from the flat file can be transformed just like data from a relational table and loaded into a relational database or written to another flat file, even in a different format. File import operator properties, which vary depending on the type of file format, describe the format of the file, including delimiting characters or column and row lengths.

Note: You can expedite the definition of file formats by generating the format based on a specified input file. When the format is defined, you can save it to a .fileformat file in your project for reuse in other data flows.
A file source operator works with three flat file formats:
Delimited row and column (DEL)
Delimited ASCII, for data exchange among a wide variety of database managers and file managers. This common approach to storing data uses special character delimiters, such as the comma and semicolon, to separate column values.
Fixed row length and fixed column length (ASC)
Non-delimited ASCII, for importing or loading data from other applications that create flat text files with aligned column data. ASC uses fixed lengths for each column and row. Lengths of columns and rows are defined in metadata at the beginning of the file.
Integrated exchange format (PC/IXF)
PC version of the Integrated Exchange Format (IXF). PC/IXF is a structured description of a database table that contains an external representation of the internal table.

Properties describe the schema of the virtual table including column names and data types after extraction from the flat file. Throughout the remainder of the data flow, rows and columns of data from the file source operator can be manipulated and transformed as if the data came from a relational table.