SQL Server 2005 – SQL Server Integration Services – Part 5

In the
previous article of this series
, we started reviewing two new types of
containers introduced in the SQL Server 2005 Integration Services – For Loop
and Foreach Loop. We also provided a simple example illustrating the use of Foreach
File enumerator. We will continue our review of Foreach enumerators starting
with Foreach ADO, since this one probably qualifies as the most popular choice
in its category. This is due to the fact that ADO recordsets offer a convenient
way of dealing with data sources, regardless of their type (for example, within
SSIS, you can easily populate a recordset by executing a SQL query or by
reading the content of a flat file). The goal of this article is to demonstrate
the second of these scenarios and, at the same time, explain how to retrieve
data from flat files processed within the Foreach Loop with File Enumerator
(building on the information provided previously). To accomplish this, we will
place Foreach Loop with ADO Enumerator within the Foreach Loop with File
Enumerator (such arrangement is referred to as loop nesting). For the sake of
simplicity, we will divide the process into two stages. First, we will show how
to store the content of a text file in a recordset and process it in the Foreach
Loop based on the ADO enumerator. Next, we will modify the package by enclosing
this loop within another one, based on File Enumerator.

Let’s start by creating a delimited text file, which will serve as a source
of data that will populate our recordset. We choose the semicolon as a column
separator, with each row occupying a separate line. Our sample file looks as
follows:

Thievery Corporation;The Mirror Conspiracy
Massive Attack;The 100th Window
Zero 7;simple life

Save the file as "DesertIsland1.txt" in the
C:DatabaseJournalSSIS folder (obviously choices of the content, file name,
and its location are completely arbitrary). Launch the SQL Server 2005 Business
Intelligence Development Studio and create a new Integration Services Project.
You can also use the one we created for the purpose of demonstrating
functionality of Foreach Loop with File Enumerator. (As we mentioned before, it
is possible to execute individual tasks or containers by selecting Execute Task
from their context sensitive menu – alternatively, you can also disable
individual ones that are not needed – which eliminates the need to delete them
or create a new package). As you might remember, in order to access the content
of a text file, we need to have an appropriate connection manager. Right-click
on the Connection Managers area of the Package Designer interface and select
the "New Flat File Connection…" menu item. Type in "Desert
Island" as the Connection manager name, point to the newly created file
using the Browse… button next to the File name label, and accept the default
choices in the General section of the Flat File Connection Manager Editor.
Confirm that options for row and column delimiters are set correctly in the
Columns section, ensure that both Column 0 and Column 1 are listed as string
data type in the Advanced section, and take a quick look at the Preview for
final verification.

Now it is time to take care of the creation of a data source and resulting recordset.
Both of them are part of the Data Flow portion of the package implementation –
which means that you need to either drop Data Flow task from the Toolbox onto
the Control Flow design area and double click on it or switch to the Data Flow
tab of the Designer interface and create a new Data Flow task from there. In
either case, you will end up with an empty Data Flow area representing the
newly created task. Drag the Flat File Source entry from the Toolbox onto it,
right-click on it, and select Edit from the context-sensitive menu. This will
display the Flat File Source Editor, with "Desert Island" appearing
in the Flat file connection manager drop down list (it is selected
automatically since this is the only object of this type in our package).
Clicking on the Preview button appearing below will display the content of the
"DesertIsland1.txt" file in the two-column format. Click on OK to
close the Editor window. Next, drag the Recordset Destination entry from the
Toolbox onto the Data Flow area and position it directly below the Flat File
Source. Click on the rectangle representing Flat File Source to make it active
and drag the green arrow from the middle of its bottom edge all the way to the
top edge of the Recordset Destination (you can use items in the Format menu in
order to align them according to your preferences).

In order to be able to access the recordset outside of the Data Flow task,
we will create a Package-level variable called rsFileContent of data type
Object. To accomplish this, switch to the Control Flow tab, click on the empty
area of the Designer interface (so none of its containers or tasks are
selected), activate the Variables window (from View or SSIS) menu, and click on
the New Variable icon in its toolbar. Type rsFileContent as the variable name,
ensure that Package appears in the scope column, and select Object in the Data
Type column. Close the Variables window and switch back to the Data Flow tab of
the Designer interface.

Display the Advanced Editor for Recordset Destination by choosing the Edit
entry in its context sensitive menu. In the VariableName entry of Custom
Property section on the Component Properties tab, type in rsFileContent.
Confirm that Column 0 and Column 1 appear under the Input Columns tab and mark the
checkboxes next to each of them. Accept the remaining defaults and click on OK
to close the Advanced Editor window.

When the package is executed, the content of the text file populates the rsFileContent
variable. In order to retrieve individual rows, we will use Foreach Loop with
ADO Enumerator. Click on the Control Flow tab of the Designer interface to
activate it and drag the Foreach Loop Container icon from the Toolbox to the
Designer area directly underneath the previously created Data Flow task. Extend
the green arrow, visible when the Data Flow task is selected, to the top edge
of the Foreach Loop container and select Edit from its context-sensitive menu
to display the Foreach Loop Editor. In its Collection section, select Foreach
ADO Enumerator in the Enumerator entry, choose User::rsFileContent from the
drop down list, which designates the ADO object source variable, and keep the
default "Rows in the first table" selection for the Enumeration mode.
Since our recordset contains two columns, we will need two variables to store the
content of each for every row. You can create them directly from the Variable
Mappings section of the Foreach Loop Editor – simply by selecting the <New
Variable…> option in the Variable column. In our case, we will define
Package level variables sColumn0 and sColumn1 for storing entries from Column 0
and Column 1, respectively (which are represented by Index 0 and 1 in the Foreach
loop). In the Add Variable dialog box, select Package as the scope and String
as the data type from drop down lists and type in an appropriate variable Name.
Once User::sColumn0 is assigned index 0 and User::sColumn1 is assigned to index
1, click on OK to close the Foreach Loop Editor window and return to the
Designer area.

To verify that we accomplished our goal, we will display message boxes with
the content of each row, for every loop iteration. For this, we will need to
have a Script task, similar to the one we have used in our previous examples.
To create it, drag its icon from the Toolbox and drop it inside the Foreach
Loop Container. Right click on it and select Edit from the context-sensitive
menu. In the Script section of the Script Task Editor, in the ReadOnlyVariables,
type in sColumn0,sColumn1. Click on the Design Script… button and modify the
Public Sub Main() in the Visual Studio for Applications window so it looks as
follows:

Public Sub Main()
 '
 ' Add your code here
 '
 MsgBox(Trim(Dts.Variables("User::sColumn0").Value.ToString) & " --- " & _
  Trim(Dts.Variables("User::sColumn1").Value.ToString))
 Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
End Sub

This will display the content of both fields from each row of the recordset
on every iteration of the Foreach loop. Trim function, which we included above,
simply removes trailing (and potentially leading) spaces, making the display a
bit more compact. Once you execute the package, you should see three message
boxes, displayed in sequence, each containing an entry from each column of
every row in the recordset (originating from our DesertIsland1.txt text file).

By putting together a package that displays the content of recordset
populated from a text file, we accomplished the first of our goals. Now let’s
try to extend this functionality by processing multiple files in repetitive
fashion (each of them will produce a separate recordset that will be processed
using the same set of components that we just created). Since we will need to
iterate over a collection of files, we need another Foreach Loop (this time
with File Enumerator). Drag its icon from the Toolbox onto the Control Flow
area of the Designer interface and position it to the side of our Data Flow
task and Foreach Loop container. Next, select both of these components and drag
them over the newly added Foreach Loop container, which will make them part of
its content. Right-click on the outer Foreach Loop and select Edit from the
context sensitive menu. In the resulting Foreach Loop Editor, ensure that Foreach
File Enumerator appears in the Enumerator entry of the Collection section,
point to C:DatabaseJournalSSIS in the Folder entry in the Enumerator
configuration area, type in DesertIsland*.txt in the Files text box, and keep
the default "Fully qualified" entry in the "Retrieve file
name" area. Switch to the Variable Mappings section, define a new variable
with the scope set to the current Foreach Loop, with Name sDesertIslandFile,
String value type, and Index of 0 (these steps should be familiar from our previous
article).

As before, in order to track the progress of the package execution, we will
add the Script Task displaying a message containing the name of the currently
processed file. To accomplish this, place a new Script Task inside the outer Foreach
Loop Container, above the Data Flow task. Extend the green arrow from the
bottom of the Script task to the Data Flow task. Finally, display the Editor
window of the Script Task (using the Edit item from its context-sensitive
menu), switch to the Script section, add sDesertIslandFile in the ReadOnlyVariable
section, click on the Design Script… button, and modify the Public Sub Main()
so it has the following content:

Public Sub Main()
 '
 ' Add your code here
 '
 MsgBox(Dts.Variables("User::sDesertIslandFile").Value.ToString)
 Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
End Sub

To properly test our package, add another text file called, for example,
"DesertIsland2.txt" in the C:DatabaseJournalSSIS folder (or
whatever naming convention and location you decided on) and include a few
entries within it, following the same format as the one used in
"DesertIsland1.txt", for example:

VAST;Visual Audio Sensory Theater
Dead Can Dance;A Passage in Time
Lisa Gerrard;Duality

In the last remaining step, we need to adjust our package to reflect the
fact that the Flat File Connection Manager should be pointing to each file
retrieved in the outer Foreach Loop (the one using the File Enumerator).
Otherwise, this loop will execute twice (since we have two files in the target
folder that match our criteria), but both times it will display the content of
the "DesertIsland1.txt" – since this is the name of the file
specified in the "Desert Island" connection manager. To change this,
select the "Desert Island" connection manager icon and, in its
Properties window, find the Expressions entry. Next, click on the ellipsis
(…) button on its right-hand side. In the Property Expression Editor, choose ConnectionString
from the drop down list in the Property column and then assign @[User::sDesertIslandFile]
to it (you can use the Expression Builder to avoid typing mistakes), since this
is where names of files retrieved in the outer Foreach Loop are stored. Once
the package executes, it will process both files, displaying their names and
the content of each.

In our next article, we will continue our review of the Foreach Loop
container enumerators in the SQL Server 2005 Integration Services.

»


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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.

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