SSIS define EOL (or row delimiter)

Question

This is a silly question but it is driving me nuts: why can't I define row delimiters in SSIS, just HEADER delimiters? Here is my situation: my file contains records of varying sizes:

So, I am unable to define a row delimiter for my file. Further, I'm also unable to define the total row size (I am ASSUMING here that SSIS just adds up the column lengths defined in order to derive a total row length, but indeed there exists no independent one).

Here are all the settings available: And as a result I am getting sparsely populated records (because the rows do not end where they should):

Thank you so much in advance!

I think what you need is the "Ragged Right" format instead of "Fixed Width". — Tab Alleman, Nov 24 '15 at 16:38
wow - I feel utterly stupid... such a simple solution to what was a 5-hour adventure for me — LearnByReading, Nov 24 '15 at 17:02
why dont you add it as an answer so that I can Pick it as Answer? — LearnByReading, Nov 24 '15 at 17:02

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 24 '15 at 18:25

2

When your text file format is all fixed-width except for the last (right-most) column, you should use the Ragged Right format. It lets you specify widths for all columns except the last one, which uses the row delimiter instead.

answered Nov 24 '15 at 18:25

Tab Alleman

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SSIS define EOL (or row delimiter)

1 Answers1