Creating a virtual column

A virtual column is the concatenation of data from one or more columns into one column. You can then run subsequent analysis jobs on this concatenated column.

About this task

For example, you can combine a First Name column and a Last Name column into one column called Name. You could then analyze this concatenated column, which contains the data in both the First Name column and the Last Name column. A virtual column might also be used to assess potential multicolumn primary keys or validate a value pair combination from several fields. You can also create a virtual column on a single column to truncate or pad the data in that column.

Procedure

On the Column Analysis workspace of the console, click Manage Virtual Columns.
Click Create New to create a virtual column.
In the Name field, type a name for the virtual column.
Optional: In the Definition field, type a description. For example, you might want to provide a reason for the concatenation.
Select one or more columns from the Available Columns list.
Click the arrow button to move the selected columns into the Selected Columns list.
Optional: Modify the order of the selected columns.
Optional: Add the following parameters: a fixed width for the column, a field separator, or quotation marks around the column values.
Click Save.

What to do next

You can analyze the new virtual column by running a column analysis job.