SQL Server 2005 – SQL Server Integration Services – Loop Containers

As we briefly mentioned in the previous installment of this series, among
features introduced in the SQL Server 2005 Integration Services there are For
and ForEach loops, implemented in the form of containers that can be
incorporated into the Control Flow part of a package design. (They are included
in the list of package components listed in the Toolbox accessible from the
Control Flow tab of the SSIS Designer interface of the SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio). Both of them serve the same generic purpose
(familiar to anyone with even minimal exposure to programming languages), which
is repetitive execution of a sequence of tasks, as long as an arbitrarily
chosen condition is satisfied (status of the condition is checked at the end of
each execution sequence). In the SQL Server 2000 (and 7.0) Data Transformation
Services, such functionality was not available and emulating it required rather
cumbersome workarounds.

In the case of the For Loop container, the decision of whether execution of
components within its scope should be repeated is based on the value of three
interrelated expressions:

  • EvalExpression – a Boolean (one that evaluates to either True or
    False) expression that is used to determine whether the sequence of tasks
    within the container should be executed or whether the flow of control should
    be transferred to the next container in the package (or be terminated, if the
    For Loop happens to be the last container within the package).

  • InitExpression – typically, an assignment (assigning a value to a
    variable) expression that impacts the result of evaluation of EvalExpression
    the first time control flow enters the loop. If the evaluation yields a False
    result, the control flow exits the loop (in other words, no tasks within the
    For Loop are executed).

  • AssignExpression – also, most commonly, an assignment expression,
    which is used to update values in EvalExpression at the end of each iteration.
    Once values are updated, evaluation takes place again.

All three properties must follow the syntax of SSIS expressions, which we
discussed in our previous
article
. The only deviation from this rule is the use of assignment
operator, which is not allowed in any SSIS context other than the properties of
the For Loop container. Expression in this case takes the form @variable = expression, where the expression must result in a data type
compatible with the data type of the variable to which its value is assigned.
All three properties can be set from the For Loop Editor interface or from the
Properties window (note, however, that the Expression Builder interface is not
available when performing this task). Within the For Loop Editor, it is
possible to assign to properties both direct values as well as expressions
(which we discussed earlier in this series of articles).

We will demonstrate the For Loop functionality through a very simple
package, which, besides the For Loop container itself, also includes a single
Script Task (within the container scope). We will also use a single variable iCounter
of data type Int16 as the loop counter, serving as an element of InitExpression,
EvalExpression, and AssignExpression expressions. To accomplish this, create a
new (or use an existing) SSIS project within the SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio. Ensure that the Control Flow tab is selected
and drag the For Loop Container icon from the Toolbox to the Designer area.
With the newly created container selected, display the Variable window (this
can be done from the View menu, pointing to the Other Windows submenu and
clicking on the Variables entry). Clicking on the first icon in the Variables
window toolbar will create a variable with the scope of the For Loop Container.
In the Name column, type in iCounter and choose the Int16 from the drop-down
list as the Data Type. Right-click on the For Loop Container and select Edit
from the context-sensitive menu. Fill out the For Loop Properties section of
the For Loop Editor according to the following list:

  • for the expression InitExpression
    type in @iCounter=0

  • for the expression EvalExpression
    type in @iCounter<3

  • for the expression AssignExpression
    type in @iCounter=@iCounter+1

Click on OK to close the For Loop Editor. Next, drag a Script Task component
from the Toolbox and drop it inside the For Loop container. Right-click on it
and select the Edit item from the context-sensitive menu. You will be presented
with the Script Task Editor interface, which is fairly straightforward. The
portion that is relevant to us, accessible by clicking on the Script entry on
the left hand side of the window, allows you to:

  • set the programming language (note that the term
    "script" used in this case is a bit of misnomer), which in our case
    will be Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, specify precompilation options (PrecompileScriptIntoBinaryCode),

  • define an entry point where execution will start (through the EntryPoint
    property, which, by default has the value of ScriptMain), and

  • specify SSIS variables, which can be only read (ReadOnlyVariables)
    or read and written to (ReadWriteVariables) within the code.

In our case, the only change to default settings
will be adding iCounter to the ReadOnlyVariables box. Actual code is accessible
by clicking on the Design Script… button in the lower right corner of the
Script Task Editor. This launches Microsoft Visual Studio for Applications,
where you will notice the ScriptMain window containing the public class with
the same name and its only Sub called Main. Within the code for Sub Main(), you
should see a commented out entry stating "Add
your code here"
followed by the line of code Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success. We
will add a single line in between these two, containing MsgBox(Dts.Variables("iCounter").Value.ToString)
(the purpose of this code is to simply display the value of the iCounter User
type variable in a message box, which will indicate changes to it on every
iteration of the control flow through the For Loop container). Once this is
done, your entire Main Sub should resemble the code below:


Public Sub Main()

‘ Add your code here

MsgBox(Dts.Variables(“iCounter”).Value.ToString)
Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
End Sub

Close the Visual Studio for Applications window and click on the OK button
in the Script Task Editor to return to the Designer interface. If you select
the For Loop container and right-click on it, you will notice the Execute Task
option in its context-sensitive menu (this allows you to launch individual
tasks, without executing the entire package). Selecting it will result in the
For Loop Container and the Script Task within it turning yellow, and shortly
afterwards, a message box with the Script Task header, value 0, and OK button
being displayed. After clicking on the OK button, you should see another
message box with a value of 1, followed (after clicking on OK again) with
another one with a value of 2. Confirming the message again will complete the execution
of the For Loop (as expected, since the iCounter reached the value of 3,
causing the EvalExpression to evaluate to False), which is indicated by the For
Loop Container and Script Task changing their color from yellow to green. To
stop execution, select the Stop Debugging from the Debug menu (or press the Shift
+ F5 key combination).

While For Loop container determines the number of iterations by checking
whether an arbitrary condition evaluates to True or False, the ForEach loop
derives this result through enumeration. Enumeration can be applied to a number
of different collections, dependent on enumerator types:

  • Foreach File Enumerator – evaluates the number of iterations
    based on the number of files residing in the same folder. It is possible to
    specify additional conditions that will further refine your selection, such as
    inclusion of subfolders or filtering based on the file extension or match on
    any part of file name. Standard wildcard characters, such as the asterisk
    (designating any combination of characters) and the question mark (designating
    a single character) can also be used.

  • Foreach Item Enumerator – allows you to specify explicitly the
    items belonging to the collection to be enumerated.

  • Foreach ADO Enumerator – is used for enumeration of rows in a recordset
    referenced by an ADO object variable.

  • Foreach ADO.NET Schema Rowset Enumerator – works with schema
    information about a data source (accessible via OLE DB connection), such as
    Tables, Views, Columns, Collations, Foreign Indexes, etc.

  • Foreach From Variable Enumerator – applies enumeration to the
    content of a variable, which represents an object or collection that is
    enumerable.

  • Foreach NodeList Enumerator – works by applying XPath syntax to
    retrieve specific nodes from the result set generated by an XML Path Language
    expression.

  • Foreach SMO (SQL Server Management Object) Enumerator – retrieves
    instances of a particular type of a SQL Server Management object on the level
    of the server (covering such object types as Linked Servers, Jobs, or Logins),
    database, (including File Groups, Data Files, Log Files, Stored Procedures,
    User Defined Data Types, User Defined Functions, Users, Views, and Tables), or
    table (Columns, Foreign Keys, Triggers).

We will provide another very straightforward example illustrating the
operation of the Foreach Loop container. For the sake of simplicity, we will
limit our focus in this article to Foreach File Enumerator, however we will be
discussing the remaining ones in more detail in future articles. In order to
test its functionality, you can take advantage of the same package that was
used earlier when discussing the For Loop container. Start by dragging the Foreach
Loop container icon from the Toolbox onto the Designer area of the SQL Server
Business Intelligence Studio. With the container selected, create a new
variable called sFileName of String datatype and Foreach Loop Container scope.
Create a new Script Task (as before), but this time type in the sFileName as
the ReadOnlyVariables entry. Modify the Sub Main() of the script so it contains
the following code:


Public Sub Main()

‘ Add your code here

MsgBox(Dts.Variables(“sFileName”).Value.ToString)
Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
End Sub

Next, in the Foreach Loop Editor interface (which you can display by
selecting Edit item from the context-sensitive menu of the Foreach Loop
container), click on the Collection item (appearing on the left hand side
of the Editor window). Set the Enumerator type to Foreach File Enumerator
(by choosing the appropriate entry from the drop down list) and specify the
name of a Folder or locate it after clicking on the Browse… button (this
can be any of the folders on a local or remote computer that you have at
least read access to). Provide the name of the files within this folder
that you want to work with, and pick one of three options that control
the retrieved file name (fully qualified, name only, or name and extension).

Finally, in the Foreach Loop Editor interface, click on Variable Mappings,
and set the User::sFileName variable to Index 0. This will associate our
variable with the first column (since the index is zero-based) in the
enumerated collection, which contains names of files that match criteria
defined on the Collection page.

Click on OK to confirm your choices and execute the content of the
container by highlighting it and using the already familiar “Execute task”
item from the context sensitive menu. You should see the names of the files
from the target folder, satisfying the filtering condition that you
specified, being displayed one by one in the dialog boxes similar to the
ones we have seen when experimenting with the For Loop container.

In our next article, we will look closer into the remaining types of Foreach
Loop containers.

»


See All Articles by Columnist
Marcin Policht

Marcin Policht
Marcin Policht
Being a long time reader, I'm proud to join the crowd of technology gurus gathered here. I have a fair share of Microsoft exams behind me, a couple of acronyms after my name - MCSE, MCSD, and MCT, decent familiarity with majority of MS BackOffice products (SMS, SQL, Exchange, IIS), programming and scripting languages (VB, C++, VBScript with wsh) and several years of practical experience with Windows environment administration and engineering. My focus these days is on SQL Server and Windows 2000, and I'll attempt to share the most interesting experiences with these products.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Articles