PAD function in Data Tranformation Editor

I have a value with a float datatype in Excel that is actually a date. For example, the value displays 1272006 for January 27, 2006. I am trying to convert this value to a date. I can do this in several stages using T-SQL by converting the datatype to integer, using replicate to make it eight characters and than using substrings to make it look like 01-27-2006 which SQL Server will recognize as a date.

My problem is that there is nothing similar to a PAD (replicate) function using the Data Tranformation Editor in Integration Services. There is a replicate function but it merely functions to repeat a value. It doesn't appear to perform the same PAD function as the T-SQL replicate does. Here is my formula in T-SQL that works okay.

right(replicate('0', 8) + convert(varchar, cast([Date] as varchar)), 8)

I could do this by creating a staging table but I want to handle the entire transformation process within Integration Services. Can anyone offer me some advice? Thank you.

David

I don't think we have your full statement... I'm not seeing where you convert to a date...

Never-the-less, why not substring the "date" field and then cast it to DT_DBDATETIME?|||Question, how is Jan 1st, 2006, represented?

112006? Or 1012006?|||1012006|||

I'm not able to use the substring because the values varies between seven and eight characters. For example, January 1, 2006 is 1012006 while October 1, 2006 is 10012006. I figure I need to convert the value to eight characters by padding a zero on the left. I then can use a substring to convert it to a SQL Server recognizable date like 01-01-2006.

David

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davidg12 wrote:

I'm not able to use the substring because the values varies between seven and eight characters. For example, January 1, 2006 is 1012006 while October 1, 2006 is 10012006. I figure I need to convert the value to eight characters by padding a zero on the left. I then can use a substring to convert it to a SQL Server recognizable date like 01-01-2006.

David

Okay, so then this should be easy... If you want to do this in one derived column (are you guaranteed that the value is a correct and verified date?), then you can do something like:

(DT_DBTIMESTAMP)(SUBSTRING(RIGHT("0" + datefield,8),5,4) + "-" + SUBSTRING(RIGHT("0" + datefield,8),1,2) + "-" + SUBSTRING(RIGHT("0" + datefield,8),3,2) + " 00:00:00")

In an upstream derived column, you could do the "RIGHT("0" + datefield,8)" calculation, and then just use that field in the above expression. It would make it easier to read.
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Thank you Phil. This works great.

David