Flat file data adapter

The next type of Data Source we will look at is the Flat File data adapter. The flat file data adapter is pretty much exactly like one would expect—it is an adapter that provides connections to flat data files such as comma separated text files and other delimited text file types. A limitation with this adapter is that there is no way to explicitly use a particular type of delimiter. We are stuck with commas, pipes, tabs, and spaces. This should cover most of the kinds of flat files we will come across.

In the following exercise, we will cover creating a connection to a flat text file that contains employee pay information. The format of the text file is fairly simple. The file will be a comma separated text file, with the fields displayed in the following format: First Name | Last Name | Payment Date | Payment Amount

An example of the file could be shown as follows:

John,Ward,1/2/2007,500
Data Source, BIRTflat file data adapterJohn,Ward,1/3/2007,600
John,Ward...