Adding Records or a Record Type
About this task
Why add records?
You use records to define the structure of your Flat File data. Records can contain fields, groups, or other records. Records that are children of another record are used to model fields with a complex structure. Records can also be used define additional layers of hierarchy of the data.
- Delimited: The fields and child
records within the record use delimiters to define their beginning
and end points. Some delimited formats use record IDs as identifiers
and beginning delimiters. For examples of defining records that parse
delimited data, see the following examples:
- Mixed positional and delimited example
- "Developing the BookOrder Project" section of the Getting Started Guide
- Positional: the fields within the record use no delimiters but are defined instead by their position and length. Positional fields are also known as fixed-length fields. For an example of defining a record that parses positional data, see Mixed positional and delimited example.
You create records in the Schema Layout tab. Records that contain child records and fields and are not based on a record type are displayed in the Schema Layout tab using the following icon:
Records that are based on a record type are displayed in the Schema Layout tab using the following icon:
Why Add Record Types?
Record types define a set of record properties, fields, and child records that can be reused by multiple records. For example, you could define an address record type that contains a street field, a city field, a state field, and a zip code field. You could then use the address record type as the basis of all the addresses in the Flat File Schema, for example to define the shipping address record and the billing address record.
You create record types in the Type Library tab. Record types that contain child records and fields and are not based on a record type are displayed in the Type Library tab using the following icon:
Record types that are based on a record type are displayed in the Type Library tab using the following icon:
- Record types are only reusable to the current Flat File Schema and are not global to the project.
- Records based on a record type can only inherit child nodes from the record type. Child nodes cannot be added to a record that is based on a record type.
- The child nodes inherited from the record type are only visible in the Type Library tab and are not visible in the Schema Layout tab.
- Record types can also be based on other record types, inheriting both properties and children from parent record types.