Fixed Width File
Fixed width text files are special cases of text files where the format is specified by column widths, pad character and left/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, and 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 a text file follows the rules below it is a fixed width text file:
- Each row (paragraph) contains one complete record of information.
- Each row contains one or many pieces of data (also referred to as columns or fields).
- Each data column has a defined width specified as a number of characters that is always the same for all rows.
- The data within each column is padded with spaces (or any character you specify) if it does not completely use all the characters allotted to it (empty space).
- Each piece of data can be left or right aligned, meaning the pad characters can occur on either side.
- Each column must consistently use the same number of characters, same pad character and same alignment (left/right).
Example Use Case: You have a fixed width file that contains your Employee information. You want to use a batch sync to pull this info into a Cinchy table and liberate your data.
The Fixed Width File source supports batch syncs.
The Fixed Width File source does not support Geometry, Geography, or Binary data types.
You can review the parameters that can be found in the info tab below (Image 1).
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Title | Mandatory. Input a name for your data sync | Employee Sync |
Version | Mandatory. This is a pre-populated field containing a version number for your data sync. You can override it if you wish. | 1.0.0 |
Parameters | @Filepath |

Image 1: The Info Tab
The following table outlines the mandatory and optional parameters you will find on the Source tab (Image 2).
Source Details
Schema
Filter
The following parameters will help to define your data sync source and how it functions.
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
(Sync) Source | Mandatory. Select your source from the drop down menu. | Fixed Width File |
Source | The location of the source file. Either a Local upload, Amazon S3, or Azure Blob Storage
The following authentication methods are supported per source:
Amazon S3: Access Key ID/Secret Access Key
Azure Blob Storage: Connection String | Local |
Header Rows to Ignore | Mandatory. The number of records from the top of the file to ignore before the data starts (includes column header). | 1 |
Footer Rows to Ignore | Mandatory. The number of records from the bottom of the file to ignore | 0 |
Encoding | Optional. The encoding of the file. This default to UTF8, however also supports: UTF8_BOM, UTF16, ASCII. | |
Path | Mandatory. The path to the source file to load. To upload a local file, you must first insert a Parameter in the Info tab of the connection (ex: filepath). Then, you would reference that same value in this location (Ex: @Filepath). This will then trigger a File Upload option to import your file. | @Filepath |
The Schema section is where you define which source columns you want to sync in your connection. You can repeat the values for multiple columns.
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Name | Mandatory. The name of your column as it appears in the source. | Name |
Alias | Optional. You may choose to use an alias on your column so that it has a different name in the data sync. | |
Data Type | Mandatory. The data type of the column values. | Text |
Description | Optional. You may choose to add a description to your column. | |
There are other options available for the Schema section if you click on Show Advanced.
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Mandatory |
| |
Validate Data |
| |
Trim Whitespace | Optional if data type = text. If your data type was chosen as "text", you can choose whether to trim the whitespace (that is, spaces and other non-printing characters). | |
You can choose to add in a Transformation > String Replacement by inputting the following:
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Pattern | Mandatory if using a Transformation. The pattern for your string replacement, i.e. the string that will be searched and replaced. | |
Replacement | What you want to replace your pattern with. | |
Note that you can have more than one String Replacement
You have the option to add a source filter to your data sync. Please review the documentation here for more information on source filters.
- Click Jobs > Start a Job to begin your sync.
Last modified 3mo ago