DTS w/dynamic source & query

[znelson]

I'm looking for a way to transform the contents of n source tables
into a single destination table. This by itself is no problem.

However, the name of the source tables change, so I'll need to base
the transform task on a global variable that I can update via external
code. Not sure how to do that. I'm ok with executing the package 10
times if there's 10 source tables.

The last unknown piece is modifying the query used for the transform.
There are 10 columns in the source table, but there are 12 columns in
the destination table. I must provide the 2 missing columns. They will
simply contain a year and month, ie. 05 2003.

I'm taking a bunch of source tables (for a given month and year) and
rolling them together into one destination table, and carrying over
the month and year. I assume the month and year would also be globals.
But I'm not sure how to incorporate them into the transform task since
it wants strict SQL syntax.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

[Simon Hayes]

"znelson" <zn*****@hpis.net> wrote in message
news:f5**************************@posting.google.c om...

I'm looking for a way to transform the contents of n source tables
into a single destination table. This by itself is no problem.

However, the name of the source tables change, so I'll need to base
the transform task on a global variable that I can update via external
code. Not sure how to do that. I'm ok with executing the package 10
times if there's 10 source tables.

The last unknown piece is modifying the query used for the transform.
There are 10 columns in the source table, but there are 12 columns in
the destination table. I must provide the 2 missing columns. They will
simply contain a year and month, ie. 05 2003.

I'm taking a bunch of source tables (for a given month and year) and
rolling them together into one destination table, and carrying over
the month and year. I assume the month and year would also be globals.
But I'm not sure how to incorporate them into the transform task since
it wants strict SQL syntax.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

One way to pass in a global variable at runtime is as a parameter to
dtsrun.exe - you can use dtsrunui.exe to build a sample command line for
you, then parameterize it using your preferred language:

http://www.sqldts.com/default.aspx?301

This is useful when the number of parameters is fairly limited. An
alternative if you have many global variables is to put the values in a
database table or .INI file, and use a Dynamic Properties task to retrieve
them and assign them to the variables. This allows for more complex logic,
conditional values based on server name, AD site name etc. Finally, you can
assign global variable values directly in an ActiveX task.

As for how to pass in the month/year to an INSERT, these pages may be
useful:

http://www.sqldts.com/?234
http://www.sqldts.com/?205

Simon

[znelson]

"Simon Hayes" <sq*@hayes.ch> wrote in message news:<40**********@news.bluewin.ch>...

"znelson" <zn*****@hpis.net> wrote in message
news:f5**************************@posting.google.c om...

I'm looking for a way to transform the contents of n source tables
into a single destination table. This by itself is no problem.

However, the name of the source tables change, so I'll need to base
the transform task on a global variable that I can update via external
code. Not sure how to do that. I'm ok with executing the package 10
times if there's 10 source tables.

The last unknown piece is modifying the query used for the transform.
There are 10 columns in the source table, but there are 12 columns in
the destination table. I must provide the 2 missing columns. They will
simply contain a year and month, ie. 05 2003.

I'm taking a bunch of source tables (for a given month and year) and
rolling them together into one destination table, and carrying over
the month and year. I assume the month and year would also be globals.
But I'm not sure how to incorporate them into the transform task since
it wants strict SQL syntax.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

One way to pass in a global variable at runtime is as a parameter to
dtsrun.exe - you can use dtsrunui.exe to build a sample command line for
you, then parameterize it using your preferred language:

http://www.sqldts.com/default.aspx?301

This is useful when the number of parameters is fairly limited. An
alternative if you have many global variables is to put the values in a
database table or .INI file, and use a Dynamic Properties task to retrieve
them and assign them to the variables. This allows for more complex logic,
conditional values based on server name, AD site name etc. Finally, you can
assign global variable values directly in an ActiveX task.

As for how to pass in the month/year to an INSERT, these pages may be
useful:

http://www.sqldts.com/?234
http://www.sqldts.com/?205

Simon

Simon,

Thanks a lot, very helpful!