File Formats
Whenever an ETL tool has to integrate with legacy systems, mainframes, or any other proprietary database systems, the easiest way to transfer data between the systems is to use flat files. Integration Services can deal with flat files that are fixed width, delimited, and ragged right format types. For the benefit of users who are new to the ETL world, these formats are explained next.
Fixed Width
If you have been working with mainframes or legacy systems, you may be familiar with this format. Fixed width files use different widths for columns, but the chosen width per column stays fixed for all the rows, regardless of the contents of those columns. If you open such a file, you will likely see lots of blank spaces between the two ...
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