Surrogate Key tab (DataStage®)

Use this tab to specify information about the key source if you generate surrogate keys. You can use surrogate keys in complex lookup and update operations.

You generate the surrogate keys and specify the information about the key source. The key source can be a flat file or a database sequence.

To generate surrogate keys by using a flat file:

  1. In the Source type field, select Flat File.
  2. In the Source name field, type the name and fully qualified path of the flat file, or click the arrow button to browse for the file or to insert a job parameter. The file must be accessible from all nodes that run the Transformer stage.
  3. In the Initial value field, type a number or insert a job parameter. The first time the job runs, this value is used to initialize the key state. Every subsequent time the job runs, the initial value is the start value for generating surrogate keys. If the specified value is taken, the stage uses the next available value.

To generate surrogate keys by using a database sequence:

  1. In the Source type field, select Database sequence. You can choose Oracle, ODBC or Db2.
    Note: If you selected a ODBC as a source connector, then you need to choose Data source type: Oracle, Snowflake or IBM Db2.
  2. In the Source connector field, select the source connector
  3. In the Source connection field, select the source connection.
  4. In the Source name field, type the name of the database sequence or browse for the sequence.
Note: The password for the connection needs to be parameterized to an encrypted password to run end to end.