tFileInputPositional Standard properties

Either Built-In or Repository.

Built-In: No property data stored centrally.

Repository: Select the repository file where the properties are stored.

When this check box is selected, a Component list appears allowing you to select the component used to set the dynamic schema.

Stream: The data flow to be processed. The data must be added to the flow in order for tFileInputPositional to fetch these data via the corresponding representative variable.

This variable can be already pre-defined in Talend Studio or provided by the context or the components you are using along with this component, for example, the INPUT_STREAM variable of tFileFetch; otherwise, you can define it manually and use it according to the design of your Job, for example, using tJava or tJavaFlex.

In order to avoid the inconvenience of hand writing, you could select the variable of interest from the auto-completion list (Ctrl+Space) to fill the current field on condition that this variable has been properly defined.

Related scenario to the input stream, see Reading data from a remote file in streaming mode.

The separator used to identify the end of a row.

Select this check box to customize the data format of the positional file and define the table columns:

Column: Select the column you want to customize.

Size: Enter the column size.

Padding char: Enter, between double quotation marks, the padding charater you need to remove from the field. A space by default.

Alignment: Select the appropriate alignment parameter.

Length values separated by commas, interpreted as a string between quotes. Make sure the values entered in this field are consistent with the schema defined.

The unit of the length values specified in the Pattern field.

• Bytes: With this option selected, the length values in the Pattern field should be the count of bytes that represent symbols in original encoding of the input file.

• Symbols: With this option selected, the length values in the Pattern field should be the count of regular symbols, not including surrogate pairs.

• Symbols (including rare): With this option selected, the length values in the Pattern field should be the count of symbols, including rare symbols such as surrogate pairs, and each surrogate pair counts as a single symbol. Considering the performance factor, it is not recommended to use this option when your input data consists of only regular symbols.

Select this check box to skip the empty rows.

Select the check box to stop the execution of the Job when an error occurs.

Clear the check box to skip any rows on error and complete the process for error-free rows. When errors are skipped, you can collect the rows on error using a Row > Reject link.

Enter the number of rows to be skipped in the beginning of file.

A schema is a row description. It defines the number of fields (columns) to be processed and passed on to the next component. When you create a Spark Job, avoid the reserved word line when naming the fields.

Click Edit schema to make changes to the schema. If the current schema is of the Repository type, three options are available:

• View schema: choose this option to view the schema only.

• Change to built-in property: choose this option to change the schema to Built-in for local changes.

• Update repository connection: choose this option to change the schema stored in the repository and decide whether to propagate the changes to all the Jobs upon completion.

  If you just want to propagate the changes to the current Job, you can select No upon completion and choose this schema metadata again in the Repository Content window.

This component offers the advantage of the dynamic schema feature. This allows you to retrieve unknown columns from source files or to copy batches of columns from a source without mapping each column individually. For further information about dynamic schemas, see Dynamic schema.

This dynamic schema feature is designed for the purpose of retrieving unknown columns of a table and is recommended to be used for this purpose only; it is not recommended for the use of creating tables.

This component must work with tSetDynamicSchema to leverage the dynamic schema feature.

Built-in: The schema will be created and stored locally for this component only. For more information about a component schema in its Basic settings tab, see Basic settings tab.

Repository: The schema already exists and is stored in the Repository, hence can be reused in various projects and Job flowcharts. For more information about a component schema in its Basic settings tab, see Basic settings tab.

Select this check box to change the separator used for numbers. By default, the thousands separator is a comma (,) and the decimal separator is a period (.).

Thousands separator: define separators for thousands.

Decimal separator: define separators for decimals.

Select this check box to check the date format strictly against the input schema.

Select the encoding from the list or select Custom and define it manually. This field is compulsory for database data handling. The supported encodings depend on the JVM that you are using. For more information, see https://docs.oracle.com.

NB_LINE: the number of rows processed. This is an After variable and it returns an integer.

ERROR_MESSAGE: the error message generated by the component when an error occurs. This is an After variable and it returns a string. This variable functions only if the Die on error check box is cleared, if the component has this check box.

A Flow variable functions during the execution of a component while an After variable functions after the execution of the component.

To fill up a field or expression with a variable, press Ctrl+Space to access the variable list and choose the variable to use from it.

For more information about variables, see Using contexts and variables.