Syntax

  • In the configuration file, specify only period columns that have data. If a certain period does not have any data, you should remove that column from your configuration file. Doing so will speed up your insert or update time.
  • Use fixed dimension field syntax if the whole data file refers to a constant member in a dimension. This can be done by specifying fixed in lieu of ID or name. For more information, see Fixed format files.
    • For example, for a data file that contains only the Actual version of data, this line should be used in the configuration file.

      Version,Fixed,Actual

    • No data for the fixed dimension (in this case version) is needed in the data file.
  • If you cannot use a fixed format, use the member ID whenever possible. While you can use the member name, the member ID, or both for the non-data fields in the configuration file, the fastest data load occurs when the member ID is included. When only the member name is present, it is used to look up the member ID. The Data Loader looks for the attributes in this order: fixed, ID, name, desc. In other words, if fixed is present, it would use fixed and neglect ID, name, and desc for that particular dimension. For example, use:

    Unit,id, 4

    • This means column 4 in the data file is Mem_ID from the Unit dimension. Rather than:

      Unit,name,4

    • This means column 4 in data file is Mem_Name from the Unit dimension, and may require extra lookup.