what's the difference between SQL type and Data Element

fyaqq · Post by **fyaqq** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:24 am

in the transformer stage? Can someone explain it in a little bit details?
Thanks.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:43 am

I am going to presume you are happy with what SQL data types are.

Data Elements are internal to DataStage. I like to think of them as "luggage tags" for data. For example, the SQL data type might be Char(10). What is it? A telephone number? A tax file number? A product code?

Data Elements allow you to create your own definitions, and to document the business rules associated with each. For example, it is meaningful to parse the area code from a telephone number, but not from a tax file number.

Consider a Data Element called Revenue. Performing a Usage Analysis on this Data Element can rapidly answer the question "which jobs process revenue?".

fyaqq · Post by **fyaqq** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:32 am

Thanks for your reply.
I am just a little confused with the data element part.
Is there any scenario that you need to explicitly define the data element type
in order for something to work?

kumar_s · Post by **kumar_s** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:01 am

It is a 'nice to have' object. You need to build data elements using the existing standard, datatypes only. By creating this, making more understandalble format. You can built using basing data types as well.

trobinson · Post by **trobinson** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:33 am

The MQSeries Stage might give you an argument on whether some data elements are "nice to have". I believe there are some internal data elements of this stage that would make them mandatory. Are there others?