The Copy Column Transformation

[James Beresford]

Fig 1: The Copy Column Transformation


In this post I will be covering the Copy Column Transformation. The sample package can be found*here for 2005 and guidelines on use are here.

What does the Copy Column Transformation do?

The Copy Column Transformation simply takes an input column and creates a duplicate of it with a new name. It’s pretty easy to configure, as shown below:

Fig 2: Configuring the Copy Column Transformation


You just select the input column and name the created Output column. You can duplicate an individual column as many times as you want.

When would you use the Copy Column Transformation?

Whenever you need to create multiple copies of an input column. However - like the Audit Transformation - this could just as easily be done in a Derived Column transformation, which gives you much more flexibility. So the BI Monkey advises largely ignoring this Transformation.

MSDN Documentation for the Copy Column Transformation can be found here for 2008 and here for 2005.



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