how to delete a parameter from a sequence stage

jacksamsula · Post by **jacksamsula** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:23 pm

How can I completely delete a parameter from a sequence stage. There is a button to clear the parameter value but there seems to be no way to delete the entry in the left hand column. The result is that it continues to pass a null parameter to its job which overrides any value for that parameter name set in the job itself.

ankursaxena.2003 · Post by **ankursaxena.2003** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:05 pm

I don't think that you can delete a Parameter in Sequence, which you are going to use in one of the jobs.

But, lets say that you have defaulted the value of a Parameter(Param1) in Job1 to "A", then you can default the Parameter(Param1) to "A" at Sequence level.
Hence, you don't have to worry about the sending NULL value.

jacksamsula · Post by **jacksamsula** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:18 pm

Thank you Saxena,

The reason I wish to delete the parameter is that I now am using an environment variable in the job which is being executed by the stage, so any default value, null or otherwise, overrides the environment variable. OR did I misunderstand your solution?

jacksamsula · Post by **jacksamsula** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:24 pm

Ankur, I think that I have misunderstood my own problem - please don't bother trying to answere my last response until I get my problem more clearly defined. Thank you very much for your initial response. Jack

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:18 pm

The list of parameter names in a job activity is populated from the job referred to. The only way you can delete the parameter is to delete it in the job itself. A job activity can only pass an entire set of parameters to a job.

You could use dsjob in an Execute Command activity if you want to pass only a subset of parameters (possibly followed by dsjob to post a log entry).

jacksamsula · Post by **jacksamsula** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:59 am

OF COURSE ! A Senior Moment. Thanks very much Ray

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:01 pm

I'm curious about something. While you are presented with all job parameters for the attached job in the Job Activity stage, you are not required to pass values to all of them. And when you do not pass a value, it should use the parameter's default / design time value.

Are you saying that's not the case if the default is an environment variable?

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:05 pm

As far as I know, the behaviour of a job activity is always to replace. If the value in the job activity is empty, then "" will be supplied to the job. This may prove to be invalid (for example for an Integer parameter type).

That's why the Job activity has "Set to Default" and "Set All to Default" buttons. These defaults are picked up from the job design.

When you do not pass a value from dsjob command, things are as you describe, irrespective of whether or not the parameter is an environment variable or not. The default value is used.

The difference with environment variable parameters is that you can use one of the special tokens ($PROJDEF, $ENV or $UNSET) when defining its default value.

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:31 pm

Fully agree on the behaviour of dsjob and understand the special tokens as well. Perhaps I'm thinking of the 7.x version of the Job Activity stage as I've yet to see the 8.x one and I don't recall any "Set to Default" properties back in the day. What I remember is you simply left them empty to signify you wanted to use the default. Of course, it has been a hellova long time so my memory could be faulty. Wouldn't be the first time. [shrug]

I defer to the Master.