Padding and Writing to a fixed format flat file!

Hi,

I am trying to write to a fixed format flat file using Flat File Destination Data Flow Component. I have all required information gathered from more than one sources. But when I tried to format the columns to a big string that will make up one line in the flat file, I could not figure out how to do that. Couple of issues that I am facing are:

How to padd different columns? For example, One interger column has could be 1 to 10 character long in my case. When I convert to string, dont know how to padd the remaining characters i.e. if the value of integer is '1234', it should be written to file as '1234 ' . Which transformation is best in this case, if available? How to convert T-SQL datetime to a specific date and time format to write in the flate file? I have to write these date formats depending upon one of the parameters passed. Also, I dont want to put a delimiter at the end of each column, just the new line characters at the end of each record. Some of the columns has some unwanted characters (like new line characters) how to find them and remove them from the string. Can we directly write columns to a specific position in the flat file? e.g. col 1 a position 1 and col2 starts at postion 20 etc.

Your co-operation will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paraclete

Take a look at a ragged-right or fixed width flat file connection manager. WHen you create the connection manager, you can choose ragged right or fixed width instead of delimited. This should solve a number of your issues.sql