Transformation - Source Qualifier

Source Qualifier is the default transformation with RDBMS and Flatfile source. When ever you pull RDBMS or Flatfile source in Mapping Design workspace, informatica will link the source definition with Source Qualifier. This transforamtion can be used to perform following tasks

1. Join data from Homoginious RDBMS sources
2. Write SQL filter statment for RDBMS source
3. Define two join conditions between homogenious sources
4. Specify Sorted Port
5. Select distinct value from source

Source Qualifier uses "transformation data type". Trasnformation data type determines how the source database binds data while reading. It is not advisible to change the data type in source qualifier. If datatype between source definition and source qualifier does not match, informatica will mark the mapping invalid.

If more than one source qualifier used in mapping loading data to multiple target, "target load order" can be defined. This control the order in which the powercenter load data in target.

Flatfile Source Qualifer Properties

In flatfile every attribute is read as string and converted to source definition data type. Date attribute can also be directly read from flatfile if you define the datatime format in the propereties table.

You can specify the flatfile type as delimited or fixed width. you can specify the different type of delimiter , flatfile code page, Escape Character and number of records to skip ( this is helpful if the first record in the file is the column names).

Enjoy.