BI Thoughts and Theories

There's been a few questions on the forums recently about taking column values and pivoting them to rows. For example, I might have an input file with 5 columns: a key column and 4 category columns. Key; C1; C2; C3; C4 1;1;2;3;4 2;1;2;3;4 3;1;2;3;4 4;1;2;3;4 Read More...

The 0.9 beta of BIDS Helper has been released on CodePlex. It's got a lot of great features for working with Analysis Services, and some future enhancements will include SSIS. Read More...

In Handling Flat Files with Varying Numbers of Columns , I showed an example of parsing a flat file with an inconsistent number of columns. I used a script component, but Jamie commented that the same thing could be accomplished through a Conditional Read More...

5/15 Update - I added Part 2 to show how to do the same thing with a Conditional Split and a Derived Column transform, per Jamie's feedback (see the comments on this post). A common question on the forums has been how to handle flat files that have a Read More...

[edited on 12/14/2007 to correct an error in the text around string handling - the samples were not modified] One actual failure in SSIS can trigger a whole series of error messages. For example, failure to convert a column value from a string to an integer Read More...

A question was posted on the MSDN forums about validating that there are no overlapping rows in a slowly changing dimension (SCD). It is common to use a start and end date in a type 2 SCD to designate when each version of the dimension member was in effect. Read More...