I have quite a few tables and I'm using SSIS to bring the data from Oracle to SQL Server, in the process I'd like to convert all varchar fields to nvarchar. I know I can use the Data Conversion transformer but it seems the only way to do this is to set each field one by one, then I'll have to manually set the mapping in the destination component to map to the "Copy of" field. I've got thousands of fields and it would be tedious to set it on each one... is there a way to say "if field is DT_STR convert to DT_WSTR"?
what you can do is, instead of replacing varchar with nvarchar manually before running the script is copy and save all the create table scripts generated by SSIS to a document. Then you can do a global replace nvarchar x varchar in the document.
Use then the amended script as a step in your SSIS package to create the tables before populating them with the data from Oracle.
The proper way is to use the data conversion step...
That said, it appears if you disable external meta data validation in SSIS, you can bypass this error. SQL will then use an implicit conversion to the destination type.
See this SO post for a quick explanation.
Related
I am trying to import the data from the flat file into the Azure SQL database table and I have a merge to merge with another source too. But when I map the fields from the flat file to the Azure SQL database I keep getting the error like
Column "Location" cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode string data types
Upon looking at some forums I tried to change the data type of the field to Unicode string[DT_WSTR] and even I tried to have string [DT_STR]
The Destination Azure SQL database below is the Location field
Can anyone please suggest what I am missing here? Any help is greatly appreciated
Changing the columns data types from the component's advanced editor will not solve the problem. If the values imported contain some Unicode characters, you cannot convert them to non-Unicode strings, and you will receive the following exception. Before providing some solution, I highly recommend reading this article to learn more on data type conversion in SSIS:
SSIS Data types: Change from the Advanced Editor vs. Data Conversion Transformations
Getting back to your issue, there are several solutions you could try:
Changing the destination column data type (if possible)
Using the Data conversion transformation component, implement an error handling logic where the values throwing exceptions are redirected to a staging table or manipulated before re-importing them to the destination table. You can refer to the following article: An overview of Error Handling in SSIS packages
From the flat file connection manager, got to the "Advanced Tab", and change the column data type to DT_STR.
I am trying to import "Financial data" from Excel files in to sql table. Problem I am facing is that My ssis package is incrementing decimal values. e.g -(175.20) from Excel is being loaded as "-175.20000000000005" in SQL.
I am using nVArChar (20) in destination SQL table. Images attached. What's the best data type in destination table. I have done a lot of reading and people seem to suggest decimal data but Package throws error for Decimal data type.Need help please.
Ended up changing the Data type to "Currency" in my SQL destination. Then added a data conversion task to change "DT_R8" data type from excel source to "currency[DT_CY]. This resolved the issue. could have used decimal or Numeric (16,2)data type in my destination as well but then i just went ahead with currency and it worked.
You could use a Derived Column Transformation in your Data Flow Task, with an expression like ROUND([GM],2) (you might need to replace GM with whatever your actual column name is).
You can then go to the Advanced Editor of the Derived Column Transformation and set the data type to decimal with a Scale of 2 on the 'Input and Output Properties' tab (look under 'Derived Column Output').
You'll then be able to use a decimal data type in your SQL Server table.
I have a notepad file
While uploading data from import and export wizard ,
I face below error
And also while creation of the table i have edited the table structure to make every field to be ntext data type still i am getting error.
From errors you might have 2 issues:
Probably you have some characters not fitting into code page
Field is too short and you have too long data
Probably 2nd error is causing the other. Unfortunally weak error reporting is one of side effects using SSIS.
And little advise, don't use NTEXT rather NVARCHAR instead. It easier to work with NVARCHAR:
nvarchar(max) vs NText
Make your table to use nvarchar(max) instead.
Instead of using import/export wizard, write a SSIS package and add a data conversion transformation in the data flow task between the source and destination. Use unicode string in the conversion transformation.
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Sumit
Halfway through a SSIS project certain table fields changed from char(30) to nvarchar(30)
However, when running the SSIS packages, an error stating cannot convert from unicode to non-unicode appears.
I am trying to transfer data directly from a database source to its destination.
Both connections use the same database schema, so there should be no conversion.
When checking the external column data type it shows D_STR, which is not the case anymore.
I tried deleting both source and destination in hope that it would clean any sort of cached data, but it did not work.
Any ideas?
Sounds to me like the metadata in your data flow task is cached and needs to be refreshed to reflect the new type.
Open the source, go to columns, and uncheck the column, then check the column. Click ok. The metadata should refresh now.
nvarchar and nchar are unicode. Conversely, varchar and char are non-unicode.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187752.aspx
As a result if you are moving data from one data type to another you will have to perform some additional transformation (CAST or CONVERT). The other option is to look at your adapters such that char will use SSIS DataType of DT-STR and nvarchar will use SSIS DataType DT-WSTR
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms141036.aspx
Without knowing how your packages work I cannot be much more specific but hopefully this will get you going.
I have a flat file which is imported into SQL Server via an existing SSIS package. I need to make a change to the package to accommodate a new field in the flat file. The new field is a date field which is in the format dd-mmm-yy (e.g. 25-AUG-11). The date field in the flat file will either be empty (e.g. a space/whitespace) or populated with a date. I don’t have any control over the date format in the flat file.
I need to import the date field in the flat file into an existing SQL Server table and the target field data type is smalldatetime.
I was proposing to import the date as a string into a load table and then convert to smalldatetime when taking the data from the load table. But is there another possible way to parse the date format dd-mmm-yy to load this straight into a smalldatetime field without having to use convert to smalldatetime from the load table. I can’t quite think how to parse the date format, particularly the month. Any suggestions welcome.
Here is an example that might give you an idea of what you can do. Ideally, in an SSIS package or in any ETL job, you should take into account that data may not be exactly what you would like it to be. You need to take appropriate steps to handle the incorrect or invalid data that might pop up now and then. That's why SSIS comes up with lots of Transformation tasks within Data Flow Task which you can make use of to clean up the data.
In your case, you can make use of Derived Column transformation or Data conversion transformation to achieve your requirements.
The example was created in SSIS 2008 R2. It shows how to read a flat file containing the dates and load into an SQL table.
I created a simple SQL table to import the flat file data.
On the SSIS package, I have a connection manager to SQL and one for Flat file. Flat file connection is configured as shown below.
On the SSIS package, I placed a Data Flow Task on the Control Flow tab. Inside, the Data Flow task, I have a Flat File Source, Derived Column transformation and an OLE DB Destination. Since the Flat file source and OLE DB destination are straightforward, I will leave those out here. The Derived transformation creates a new column with the expression (DT_DBDATE)SmallDate. Note that you can also use Data Conversion transformation to do the same. This new column SmallDateTimeValue should be mapped to the database column in OLE DB Destination.
If you execute this package, it will fail because not all the values in the file are valid.
The reason why it fails in your case is because the invalid data is directly inserted into the table. In your case, the table will throw an exception making the package to fail. In this example, the package fails because the default setting on the Derived column transformation is to fail the component if there is any error. So, let's place a dummy transformation to redirect the error rows. We will Multicast transformation for this purpose. It won't really do anything. Ideally, you should redirect the error rows to another table using OLE DB Destination or other Destination component of your choice so you can analyze the data that causes the errors.
Drag the red arrow from Derived transformation and connect it to the Multicast transformation. This will popup the Configure Error Output dialog. Change the values under the column Error and Truncation from Fail component to Redirect row. This will redirect any error rows to the Multicast transformation and will not get into the tables.
Now, if we execute the package, it will run successfully. Note the number of rows displayed in each direction.
Here is the data that got into the table. Only 2 rows were valid. You can look at the first screenshot that showed the data in the file and you can see only 2 rows were valid.
Hope that gives you an idea to implement your requirement in the SSIS package.
It should load straight into a SMALLDATETIME field as it is. Remember, dates are just numbers in SQL Server, which are presented to the user in the desired date/time format. The SSIS package should read 25-AUG-2011 just fine as a date data type, and insert it into a SMALLDATETIME field without issues.
Was the package throwing an error or something?