Outputting long fixed-width records to a flat file using SSIS

Question

Hi everyone,

I have to build an SSIS package for work that takes the contents of a table, all columns, and outputs it to a flat file. The problem is, one of the columns is a varchar(5100) and that puts the total row size at about 5200 characters. It seems the flat file connection manager editor won't let me define a fixed-width row beyond 483 characters.

I've tried going at this from several directions. The ragged right option doesn't appear to work for me, as the columns themselves don't have delimiters in them (no CR/LF for instance). They truly are fixed width. But I can't figure out how to tell the flat file connection manager to go past 483 characters. Does anyone know what I can do here?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Personally I would use a delimited text file as my destination. SSIs will put inthe column delimter and the record dellimiters for you. These are simpler to import as well which the people you are sending it to should appreciate. We use | as the delimiter for most of our exports and CR?LF as the record delimiter.