parse-as-fixed-length.md

Parse as Fixed Length

The PARSE-AS-FIXED-LENGTH directive parses a column as a fixed length record with widths for each field specified.

Syntax

parse-as-fixed-length <column> <width>[,<width>]* [<padding>]

Usage Notes

Fixed-width text files are special cases of text files where the format is specified by column widths, pad characters, and left or right alignment. Column widths are measured in units of characters.

For example, if you have data in a text file where the first column always has exactly 10 characters, the second column has exactly 5, the third has exactly 12, and so on; this would be categorized as a fixed-width text file.

If not defined, the <padding> character is assumed to be a space character.

Example

Using this record as an example:

{
  "body": "12  10  ABCXYZ"
}

Applying this directive:

parse-as-fixed-length body 2,4,5,3

would result in this record:

{
  "body": "12  10  ABCXYZ",
  "body_1": "12",
  "body_2": "  10",
  "body_3": "  ABC",
  "body_4": "XYZ
}