Performing an Incremental Update of a Text File Data Source

  To perform an incremental update of a text file data source:

1. In the Source Navigator, select Data Sources.

2. Under Data Sources in the physical tree, right-click the text file data source to which you want to add tables, and select Incremental Update.

   The Incremental Update dialog box is displayed.

3. Optional: In the Filter text box, enter a filter for the text file set.

   For example, to filter for text files prefixed with “prod,” enter prod*.txt. A list of text files beginning with “prod” is displayed.

4. In the list of text files, select the check box next to the text files that you want to add to the data source.

5. Follow these steps to perform modeling as necessary on the selected files:

   1. Highlight the file name of one of the selected text files in the list

   2. In Skip records, enter the number of records to skip from the beginning of each text file in the data source.

      For example, the text files in your data source may contain identifying comments as the first three records of each file. In this case, enter 3 in Skip Records.

      Note:

      There is a 1000 row limit on the number records that can be skipped.

   3. Select Column names in first row if the first row after any skipped records contains column names.

      If you do not select this check box, Essbase Studio assigns a default name to each column from each file.

6. Select a Delimiter:

   • Comma

   • Tab

   • Space

   • Custom—Specify a delimiter if your data source uses a delimiter other than comma, tab, or space.

7. Optional: To override the column data type for a column, click its header in the work area to view the context menu where you select a new data type.

   Available data types:

   • Text

   • Integer

   • Large integer

   • Decimal

8. Optional: To hide a column, click its header in the work area to view the context menu and select Hide column.

   To show previously hidden columns in the work area, select “Show hidden columns” from the context menu.

9. Optional: To change the column name and data type on multiple columns of a selected file:

   1. Click the first column header and select Properties from the context menu to launch the Column Properties dialog box.

   2. To change the column name, enter a new name in the Name text box.

   3. From the Data Type group, select a column type for the column selected.

      Note:

      Changing a data type from Text to Integer results in an error when viewing sample data; however, cube deployment completes successfully.

   4. Click Next to display the properties of the next column in the file.

   5. Repeat step 6.b through step 6.d until all necessary column data types have been changed, then click OK to return to the Incremental Update dialog box.

10. After you have finished selecting and modeling the text files that you are adding to the data source, click OK to close the Incremental Update dialog box.