Data Format

Shared Configuration

The Data Format resource contains the specification for parsing or rendering a text string using the Parse Data and Render Data activities. This shared configuration resource specifies the type of formatting for the text (delimited columns or fixed-width columns), the column separator for delimited columns, the line separator, and the fill character and field offsets for fixed-width columns. You must also specify the data schema to use for parsing or rendering the text.

When parsing text, each column of an input line is transformed into the corresponding item in the specified data schema. The first column of the text line is turned into the first item in the data schema, the second column is transformed into the second item, and so on. Each line is treated as a record, and multiple lines result in a repeating data schema containing the lines of the input text string.

Parsing a text string into a data schema illustrates how an input text string is parsed into a specified data schema.

Figure 94: Parsing a text string into a data schema

When rendering text, each record in the input data schema is transformed into a line of output text. The first item of the data schema is transformed into the first column of the text line, the second item is transformed into the second column, and so on. Each record in a repeating data schema is transformed into a separate line in the output text string. Rendering a data schema into a text string is exactly the opposite process of parsing a text string into a data schema. Rendering is the reverse of the process illustrated in Parsing a text string into a data schema.