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Question about SSMS/BIDS shortcut

  • January 8, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    #177907

    I'm looking for a lazy.... I mean, more efficient way to use the Flat File Connection Manager in SSIS BIDS (which is identical to the tool used for importing flat files in the Import/Export wizard). I commonly have very wide (50+ columns) files that I need to configure, and I would like to find a keyboard shortcut to jump from one column to the next to allow me to rename each column without constantly clicking back to the left pane to select the next column. The files I deal with don't have headers, so the default column names are [Column 0], [Column 1], etc., which is not helpful in my downstream ETL process. Has anyone found a quick way to do this?

    Thanks in advance....

    Tim

    Tim Mitchell, Microsoft Data Platform MVP
    Data Warehouse and ETL Consultant
    TimMitchell.net | @Tim_Mitchell | Tyleris.com
    ETL Best Practices

  • January 9, 2008 at 8:25 am

    #766236

    After typing in the new name for Column 0, Shift+Tab will take you back to the column list. Down arrow to the next column, and then two Tabs and you're editing the next column name. It takes a couple tries to get the flow, but you can edit the names of quite a large number of columns pretty quickly.

    -Mike

  • January 9, 2008 at 8:55 am

    #766263

    Thanks Mike, that will probably speed things up. I'm still fishing around to see if there is a shortcut to take me to the next column definition without leaving the Column Name field.

    Thanks,

    Tim

    Tim Mitchell, Microsoft Data Platform MVP
    Data Warehouse and ETL Consultant
    TimMitchell.net | @Tim_Mitchell | Tyleris.com
    ETL Best Practices

  • January 10, 2008 at 5:43 am

    #766585

    If I'm not mistaken, you can highlight all the colums you want to change with a ctrl-click or shift-click. Then make the data type change on the right side of the screen.

  • January 10, 2008 at 7:12 am

    #766629

    Yes, that can be done and is quite helpful for doing data type changes en masse. However, because the Name characteristic is unique it must be done on a per-column basis.

    Tim Mitchell, Microsoft Data Platform MVP
    Data Warehouse and ETL Consultant
    TimMitchell.net | @Tim_Mitchell | Tyleris.com
    ETL Best Practices

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