Chapter 10 Building Data Transformation Diagrams

Actions (ILM)

An action defines a transformation to execute on incoming flows in order to fit your needs. Actions are linked to the previous step (data input or another action) using a data flow object. Values of the incoming flow automatically appear in the Data Structure Columns tab of the action.

Insert/Remove Split

When an action has more than one outgoing flow, you can right-click the action and select Insert Split. It automatically creates a data split after the action. Conversely, you can select Remove Split to displays the data flows instead of the data split

Insert/remove Merge

When an action has more than two incoming flows, you can right-click the action and select Insert Merge. It automatically creates a data merge before the action. Conversely, you can select Remove Merge to display the data flows instead of the data merge.

You create the following actions in a data transformation diagram:

Object	Tool	Symbol	Description
Script execution			Execution of a script.
Data query execution			Execution of an SQL Query in the database.
Data aggregation			Reduces the number of rows incoming from a data flow in order to group the data
Data sort			Sorts rows incoming from a data flow.
Data filter			Filters rows incoming from a data flow.
Data split			Duplicates an incoming data flow into several outgoing data flows.
Data join			Joins data incoming from several data flows into one outgoing data flow.
Data lookup			Lets you find the corresponding value to a key column and store it in a new column of the outgoing data flow.
Data merge			Merges all the rows incoming from several data flows into one outgoing data flow.
Data projection			Lets you define basic data transformations, such as removing columns or change columns order.
Data calculator			Lets you define complex data transformations, such as filtering or aggregating data.

By default, an action displays in the Bitmap View mode. You can right-click the symbol and deselect this mode to display the object data structure columns.